Eric L. Tribunella is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research interests include children’s and young adult literature, lesbian and gay literature, and gender and sexuality studies. He is the author of Melancholia and Maturation: The Use of Trauma in American Children's Literature (U. of Tennessee Press, 2010) and has published a number of articles in journals such as Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Children’s Literature in Education.