Stephen J. Mexal is a writer and professor of English at California State University, Fullerton. His bylines have appeared in Pacific Standard, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Smithsonian, and elsewhere. Much of his work has been academic nonfiction: scholarly articles, reviews, and book chapters. He is the author or editor of three books, all about the intersection of writing, politics, and the American west. His most recent book is The Conservative Aesthetic: Theodore Roosevelt, Popular Darwinism, and the American Literary West. Raised in New Mexico, he lives in Southern California with his wife and children.