Diana Glyer Credentials

Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer, Ph.D., teaches in the Honors College at
Azusa Pacific University in Southern California.

She is an award-winning writer whose research focuses on C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Inklings. The Company They Keep (2008) offers an in-depth account of how encouragement, praise, criticism, and conflict shaped their fellowship and their books. Bandersnatch (2016) explains what we can learn from their example. Her work as a teacher, author, artist, and speaker circles back to one common theme: Creativity thrives in Community.

Education

  • Ph.D. in English (Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric) from The University of Illinois at Chicago

  • Residential Post-Grad Program in Composition Theory from Purdue University

  • Residential Post-Grad Program in History of Rhetoric, University of New Hampshire

  • M.S. in Education (Curriculum Design) from Northern Illinois University

  • B.A. in English Literature and Fine Arts (Ceramics and Sculpture) from Bowling Green State University

  • B.S. in English Education and Art Education from Bowling Green State University

Work Experience

  • 1995–present‍ ‍Professor, The Honors College
    Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California

  • 1991–1995‍ ‍Assistant Professor of English
    College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri

  • 1988–1991‍ ‍Writing Center Director and Instructor
    North Park University, Chicago, Illinois

Books (written, edited, co-edited & forthcoming)

  • A Writer’s Circle: 7 Ways a Writing Group will Bring your Creative Vision to Life. Book IV in the Writer’s Foundation Series. (2025)

  • A Writer’s Remedy: 31 Days to Beat Writer’s Block and Get Back on Track. Book III in the Writer’s Foundation Series. (2025)

  • A Writer’s Priorities: 8 Questions to Improve Anything You Write. Book II in the Writer’s Foundation Series. (2024)

  • A Writer’s Process: Five Steps to Take Your Writing from Blank Page to Finished Manuscript. Book I in the Writer’s Foundation Series. (2024)

  • The Major and the Missionary: The Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs (2023)

  • Journey Back Again: Reasons to Revisit Middle-earth, Second Edition (2022)

  • A Compass for Deep Heaven: Navigating the C. S. Lewis Ransom Trilogy (2021)

  • Barro en Las Manos Del Alfarero: Segunda Edicion (2020)

  • Clay in the Potter’s Hands WORKBOOK / Barro en Las Manos Del Alfarero LIBRO de TRABAJO: English/Spanish Edition (2020)

  • Clay in the Potter’s Hands WORKBOOK (2020)

  • Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings (2016)

  • Clay in the Potter’s Hands (2010)

  • The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (2007)

  • The Liberal Arts in Higher Education (1998)

Three Films (on-screen expert)

  • A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War (in process). Eastgate Creative.

  • The Science-Fiction Makers: Rousseau, Lewis, and L’Engle (2021). Refuge31.

  • “Mere Christianity: Book Three.” Discussing Mere Christianity: Exploring the History, Meaning, and Relevance of C. S. Lewis’s Greatest Book (2015). HarperCollins/Zondervan.

Awards

  • 2019 Paul F. Ford Award for Excellence in C. S. Lewis Teaching and Scholarship

  • 2014 Azusa Pacific University’s Teaching Excellence Award

  • 2009 Scholar Guest of Honor for MythCon XL: The Annual Conference of the Mythopoeic Society. University of California, Los Angeles

  • 2008 Mythopoeic Society Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies

  • 2008 Finalist, Hugo Award at Denvention 3, the 66th World Science Fiction Convention

  • 2007 Imperishable Flame Award for Tolkien Studies, The North East Tolkien Society

  • 2003 Azusa Pacific University’s Undergraduate Scholarly Achievement Award

  • 2002 Azusa Pacific University’s Chase Sawtell Inspirational Teaching Award

  • 1997 Clyde S. Kilby Research Grant, the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College

Milestone Events

  • Invited Plenary Lecture: “Intellectual Hospitality Part II: Hope for Those Who are Tired of All the Fighting.” The C.S. Lewis Summer Institute. Oxford, England. (2022)

  • Interview: “The Hospitable Imagination.” C.S. Lewis & Kindred Spirits Society (Virtual). Alexandru Ioan Cuza University. Iasi, Romania. Interviewed by Kirsten Jeffrey Johnson. (2021)

  • Interview: “The Inklings, Creativity, & Community with Diana Glyer.” The Trinity Forum. Interviewed by Cherie Harder. (2021)

  • Invited Plenary Lecture: “C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings.” C. S. Lewis International Symposium, Presbyterian Heritage Center: Montreat, North Carolina. (2019)

  • Invited Plenary Lecture: “C.S. Lewis at Table with Zeus and Dante: Pushing (Against) the Limits of Intellectual Hospitality.” The C. S. Lewis Summer Institute. Oxford, England. (2014)

  • Lilly Grant: Lilly Fellows Summer Seminar for College and University Teachers. “Teaching Peace and Reconciliation: Theory and Practice in Northern Ireland.” Corrymeela Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, UK. (2012)

  • Invited Keynote Address: “C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Imagination.” The Manthei Lecture, the Petoskey C. S. Lewis Literature Festival, North Central Michigan College, Petoskey, Michigan. (2010)

  • Invited Paper: “Warren Hamilton Lewis and His ‘American Lady.’” The Oxford C. S. Lewis Society, Pusey House, Oxford, England. (2009)