Publications

Biography
STEVEN E. COLBURN is an independent scholar, poet, and Life Member of the Modern Language Association; his publications include essays on the work of Jean Arp, André Breton, William Golding, Graham Greene, Pär Lagerkvist, Doris Lessing, Alberto Moravia, Eugene O’Neill, Cesare Pavese, Fernando Pessoa, Anne Sexton, and Tristan Tzara. Co-founder of White Mule: A Poetry Journal, he has published poetry in Alabama Alumni News, Aura, Kaleidoscope, Kraken, Maryland Poetry Review, Omnibus II, River Review/La Revue rivière, and Mattoid. Recognized for his work in language, literature, and teaching, he has been profiled in Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Who’s Who in the World, Dictionary of International Biography, and Men of Achievement. The editor of Anne Sexton’s No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Interviews and Prose and Anne Sexton: Telling the Tale, his most recent projects include a study of Anne Sexton’s uncollected poetry and a critical monograph on the theological backgrounds of her work.

Following his retirement from a career in government service, Mr. Colburn took up a systematic study of Genealogy, apprenticing under three mentors: Marie C. Overman (Collier County Genealogical Society), Kathleen J. Callanan (Association of Professional Genealogists), and Andrea M. Perisho (Daughters of the American Revolution). He joined the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS, Boston) as a Research Associate, ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogists), National Genealogical Society (NGS), and is a volunteer for the Lee County (Florida) Library System. Mr. Colburn’s areas of specialization are Genealogical Problem-Solving, Genetic Genealogy, and Writing Family History. He is currently teaching, mentoring, consulting, and publishing in those fields under his nickname “Steve Colburn.”

Recent Publications
GENEALOGY

Colburn, Steve and Mulcahy, Bryan L. “Cross-Posting of DNA Test Results,” Lee County Genealogical Society [newsletter] Scribe, 41.1 (February-March 2022): 16, and 41.2 (April-May 2022): 7-8 [Updated copy available from the author].

LITERATURE

“The Troubled Life of the Artist.” In Sexton: Selected Criticism. Ed. Diana Hume George. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1988, 283-300.

“‘This Is My Tale Which I Have Told’: Anne Sexton as Storyteller.” In Critical Essays on Anne Sexton. Ed. Linda Wagner-Martin. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1989, 166-177.

“Anne Sexton: A Supplemental Bibliography, 1945-1990.” Bulletin of Bibliography 48.2 (1991): 109-15.

“Graham Greene’s ‘A Day Saved’: A Modern Tale of Time and Identity.” Studies in Short Fiction 29.3 (1992): 377-84.

Work In Progress
GENEALOGY

“Chasing Your SNP’s: Why Genetics Matters in Genealogy.” [Presentation] ©2022 Steve Colburn. Fort Myers [Florida] Regional Library, Lee County [Florida] Library System.
“Beyond the Usual Sources: Supplementing Your Genealogical Research with Government, Library and Archival Materials.” [Presentation] ©2022 Steve Colburn. Fort Myers [Florida] Regional Library, Lee County [Florida] Library System.

LITERATURE

“‘And That’s the Way It Was’: Sexton’s Poetic Apprenticeship.”
“Anne Sexton’s Poetic Juvenilia, 1945-47: A Preliminary Study.”
“‘As a Child’s Heart Might’: Childhood in Anne Sexton’s Poetry.”
“Disabling Myth: Plath’s ‘Daddy’ and the Vampire Legend.”
“From ‘Nameless Flesh’ to ‘Double Image’: The Triumph of the Confessional Mode in Anne Sexton’s Poetry.”
“Lost Connections in Sexton’s Uncollected Poetry.”
“The Reviser’s Art: Anne Sexton’s ‘Just Once’.”
“Sexton’s ‘Eighteen Days Without You’: The Development of a Poem.”
“Sexton’s Heimarmene: The Theological Backgrounds of Her Work.”
“Sexton’s Later Uncollected Poetry.”
“The ‘Rats…Star’ Palindrome in Anne Sexton’s Poetry.”