Robert Cremins

As they would say in his native Dublin, Robert Cremins is "delighted and excited" to be teaching the Human Situation in the Honors College.  Of the Great Books, Prof. Cremins says, "In recent decades, the workshop has become a popular method for teaching writing in the academy.  I think of classic literature as being a kind of eternal workshop. The Great Books are models of excellence--not just in terms of style and form, but also as exemplars of observation, argumentation, and critical intelligence.  The vivid human situations of their authors or protagonists enrich our own."

Cremins was educated in Ireland by the Jesuits, and then at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied English and philosophy.  He earned a Master's Degree in the graduate writing program at University of East Anglia, which was the first of its kind in the UK.  At UEA, Cremins worked with novelist Sir Malcolm Bradbury, and was influenced by Bradbury's dual role as fiction writer and critic.  After teaching for a year in France, Cremins returned to Ireland and spent some time working on his fiction, thanks to a grant from the Irish Arts Council.

In 1993, he moved to Houston with his Texan wife and fellow writer, Melanie Danburg.  The couple have two sons.  Cremins taught for thirteen years at Houston's Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, where he served as Chair of the English Department and was one of the inaugural recipients of the Fleming Award for Teaching Excellence.  Cremins has also taught many workshops on novel and short story writing for Inprint, Houston's non-profit literary organization.  He continues his involvement with Inprint as the writer of the blog devoted to its Brown Reading Series.  In recent years, he has also done a great deal of education writing, most notably the Master Classes series on writing skills for high school students, published by the Dallas firm Applied Practice.

Cremins has published two novels: A Sort of Homecoming (Norton, New York, 2000) and Send in the Devils (Sceptre, London, 2001). Homecoming was also translated into French and highlighted as an L.A. Times notable novel of the year.  His short fiction has been published in journals such as Critical Quarterly and The Dublin Review, and broadcast on B.B.C. radio; it has also appeared in several British anthologies.  His journalism has appeared in newspapers such as The Irish Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, and The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Prof. Cremins is enjoying teaching The Human Situation and being part of the life of the Honors College.

Robert Cremins at Inprint from Inprint Houston on Vimeo.