Billy J. Stratton

(He/Him)

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Dr. Billy J. Stratton is a professor in the Department of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver where he teaches contemporary Native American and American literature, poetics, film studies, and writing. His highly diverse critical, creative, and editorial work focuses on contemporary American literature and culture and Native/Indigenous literary studies and posthumanism. His research and commentary has been published across academic books and journals, with a more recent focus on public-facing venues. These include Oxford University Press, University of New Mexico Press, and Routledge, to Rhizomes, Arizona Quarterly, The Journal of American Culture, Wicazo-Sa Review, and Studies in American Indian Literature. Public facing media venues include Time, Salon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Hill, Indian Country Today, Then Independent, Counterpunch, TruthDig, The Observer, Fast Company, MoneyWeb, and US News and World Report.

Stratton's first book, 'Buried in Shades of Night' (2013), addresses Indigenous experiences within the context of the Indian captivity narrative genre, King Philip's War, and colonial American history. His latest projects include sustained studies and frequent commentary on the work of Stephen Graham Jones and Indigenous horror, while his edited critical collection on Jones, the first volume to address the significance of his work, is available from the University of New Mexico Press (2016), with release in softcover for Fall 2026. He also writes frequently on contemporary film and literature, with a focus on horror, sci-fi, and AI. Stratton also writes fiction, primarily set in Appalachian coal country, and has published stories including, "The Sound of Coal" (Big Muddy), "Mending the Centaur" (Cream City Review), and "The Rooted Place," (River and South Review). He is currently at work on a novel addressing similar themes.

Lastly, he has been instrumental in efforts to create greater understanding at DU around the issue of the Sand Creek Massacre, and has edited and published numerous works in consultation with Cheyenne and Arapaho representatives on this theme. As a function of such work he also serves as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Sand Creek descendant's chosen liaison for collaboration and consultations with the University of Denver.

Experience

  • 2024–present
    Professor, University of Denver
  • 2016–2024
    Associate professor, University of Denver

Education

  • 2008 
    University of Arizona, PhD American Indian Studies, English Minor
  • 2002 
    Miami University, BA English and Philosophy

Publications

  • 2019
    Captivity Narratives, Oxford University Press
  • 2019
    Transnational Narratives of Conflict and Empire, the Literary Art of Survivance in the Fiction of Gerald Vizenor, Transmotion
  • 2018
    In the Habitations of Specters: On Stephen Graham Jones' Mapping the Interior, Los Angeles Review of Books
  • 2018
    Eastern Kentucky in Four Figures, Wraparound South
  • 2016
    "The Sand Creek Massacre Took Place More Than 150 Years Ago. It Still Matters", TIME
  • 2016
    "Remembering U.S. Soldiers Who Refused to Kill Native Americans at Sand Creek" , US News & World Report
  • 2016
    A Critical Companion to the Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones, University of New Mexico Press
  • 2015
    “‘Carried in the Arms of Standing Waves:’ The Transmotional Aesthetics of Nora Marks Dauenhauer” , Transmotion
  • 2015
    Chapter: “‘You have liberty to return to your own country:’ Tecumseh, Myth and the Mediation of Native Sovereignty” , Mediating Indianness
  • 2015
    Chapter: “Reading Through Peoplehood: Towards a Culturally Responsive Approach to Native American Literature and Oral Tradition” , Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Indigenous Studies: Native North America in (Trans)motion
  • 2015
    “Evocations of Survivance: Native Storiers in Word and Image in Remembrance of Sand Creek” , Common-place: The Journal of Early American Life
  • 2014
    Our Thanksgiving Responsibility: Native Americans, Honest History and the Simple Power of Remembrance" , Salon
  • 2014
    “Everything depends on reaching the coast:” Inscriptions of Placelessness in John Hillcoat’s adaptation of The Road” , Arizona Quarterly
  • 2013
    “‘A Reservation Hero is a Hero Forever:’ Basketball, Irony, and Humor in the Novels of James Welch, Sherman Alexie, and Stephen Graham Jones” , Native Games: Indigenous Peoples and Sports in the Post-Colonial World
  • 2013
    Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip's War, University of Arizona Press
  • 2012
    “Deterritorialization, Pure War, and the Consequences of Indian Captivity in Transnational Colonial Discourse” , Rhizomes
  • 2011
    “‘el brujo es un coyote:’ Taxonomies of Trauma in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian” , Arizona Quarterly

Professional Memberships

  • Modern Language Association
  • Western Literature Association

Honours

Fulbright Scholars Program Alumni

Contact Billy for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision