Dr Daniel Cordle

Writing and editing

I write for a range of specialist and general audiences. I am the author of well-reviewed academic books and articles, of works of journalism with large readerships, and of fiction. My editing work includes two books of poetry and fiction, and special editions of academic journals. I regularly review book proposals, book manuscripts and articles for major academic publishers.

My most recent book, Bunker: Stories and Poems from a Nuclear Age (Five Leaves Publications), is co-edited with Sarah Jackson and features fiction and poetry by fourteen acclaimed writers.

Research

My extensive work on the literature and culture of the nuclear age is widely cited by scholars around the world. Two of my books, States of Suspense: The Nuclear Age, Postmodernism and United States Fiction and Prose (Manchester University Press) and Late Cold War Literature and Culture: The Nuclear 1980s (Palgrave Macmillan), are on this topic. I provide expert commentary on nuclear cultural history, speaking to public, academic and special interest audiences, and being interviewed by the media.

With a background in literary studies, I also offer broader expertise on the literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. For example, I write notes for theatre programmes and give introductions to plays.

Current projects

I have forthcoming chapters in four edited collections due for publication in 2025 and 2026 (three with Cambridge University Press; one with De Gruyter). The chapters deal with the literature of the nuclear age, nuclear shelters in fiction, the significance of representations of the beach in nuclear culture, and the Cold War context for Ursula Le Guin’s fiction. I am currently writing a book on fiction, poetry, film and music about the creation of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos.

I am also exploring issues through my own creative practice. I am working on a fiction project, The Londoners, and I am organiser of a touring exhibition for a writing/art project, Nuclear Bunker: A Creative Archive. My photographs are published by the Atomic Photographers’ Guild.

I am teaching courses at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham: On Page and Screen: Adaptations of Literature in Recent Film and 80 Years of the Atomic Age: Nuclear Stories on Page and Screen.

I was keynote speaker for the annual conference of Christian CND in October 2024.

Cultural and heritage organisations

I have worked in an outreach, collaborative and consultancy basis with a range of organisations, in roles varying between giving talks, running workshops, leading projects and fact-checking for exhibitions. Examples of organisations with which I have worked include Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham Contemporary gallery, the Los Alamos Historical Society, and the Science Museum, London.

Education

I am an experienced and successful teacher in higher education, in which I had a long career, most recently at Nottingham Trent University where I was Associate Professor of English and American Literature. I take this experience into the workshops I run and the talks I give on my areas of expertise.

Project coordination and delivery

I have been involved in and delivered a number of academic and heritage projects. Most recently, I was principal investigator and co-lead of Nottingham War Rooms: A Creative Archive, which pioneered new ways to memorialise and explore an abandoned nuclear bunker that would have been a Regional Seat of Government in the event of nuclear war. The project culminated in the publication of the book, Bunker, a knowledge exchange event bringing together different stakeholders in the past and future of the War Rooms, and a 40th-anniversary screening of the BBC’s landmark nuclear film, Threads, at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham.

Previously, I was acting lead for an impact case study, Critical Poetics, at Nottingham Trent University, which delivered writing workshops for aspiring writers at several European UNESCO Cities of Literature, a writing competition, and a book I co-edited with Jo Dixon, Writing the Contemporary: Poetry and Postcards from UNESCO Cities of Literature (Trent Editions, 2019)