Poet. professor. writing facilitator.
Painting: Kate Proudman. "Lily Briscoe's Painting." Inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel,
_To the Lighthouse_
Hi!
Thank you for visiting my website! I am a writer, poet, and professor. I hold a PhD in English from Indiana University, an MFA in creative writing (poetry) from The New School in New York City, and a BA in English (with distinction) from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
I am an associate professor of the humanities with the Bard Sequence Program in Washington, DC. I teach and publish widely across literature, spirituality, and queer thought and experience. My book of poetry, The Canaanite Woman, is due out later this year, and my next book of poetry, The Gospel According to B., is under contract for publication in 2024.
My academic research appears in top-tier scholarly journals, including Modernism/modernity and Criticism. My most recent article, "Homosexual Calm: Pausing to Listen to Queer Shame in Frankenstein," was published by Studies in the Novel in Spring 2022, and my article "Queer Mrs. Ramsay, or Virginia Woolf's Geomorphic Family" will appear in Modern Fiction Studies in 2023. My book review of Virginia Woolf and Poetry, by Emily Kopley, is forthcoming in Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature.
My poetry appears in a range of journals, including Tiferet, The Other Journal, Soul-Lit, and elsewhere. I was awarded the 2021 DIAJ Award in Poetry by Door is a Jar magazine, and I am founding director of the Institute for Spiritual Poetry, which hosts writing workshops and publishes a journal, Soul Forte: A Journal for Spiritual Writing. I am regularly invited by Bard Early College Dean's Hour series and by Centering Space in Lakewood, Ohio, to facilitate workshops to write and talk about poetry, queer thought, and spirituality.
Please reach out to me here to say hi or learn more!
Check out my forthcoming books!
Forthcoming from Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers (2022).
Jesus dismissed the Canaanite Woman. Nevertheless, she persisted. Learn more here.
Forthcoming from Unsolicited Press (2024).
Jesus meets a handsome man from Sodom. What would a queer Jesus do? Learn more here.
recent Writing Awards
2021 DIAJ Award
My poem "Lazy Eye" was awarded the 2021 DIAJ Award by the journal Door is a Jar for "capturing a unique balance of introspection and acceptance that speak so loudly to what it means to be human," writes journal editor Maxwell Bauman. Check out the poem "Lazy Eye" here, published in Issue 20, Fall 2021.
New and forthcoming publications
Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Modern Fiction Studies
Modern Fiction Studies
My two poems "One of the Wise Men Explains Why He Became an Astronomer" and "Yeshua Rereads the Iliad's Final Line. It Speaks to Something Deep Inside Him" are forthcoming in Tomorrow and Tomorrow in Spring 2022. Enjoy more of my poems here.
Modern Fiction Studies
Modern Fiction Studies
Modern Fiction Studies
Modern Fiction Studies is publishing my article "Queer Mrs. Ramsay, Or Virginia Woolf's Geomorphic Family" in Fall 2023. Read my other academic articles here.
Studies in the Novel
Modern Fiction Studies
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
My article "Homosexual Calm: Pausing to Listen to Queer Shame in Frankenstein" appears in Studies in the Novel, Spring 2022. Find my other academic articles here.
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
My review of Emily Kopley's brilliant book Virginia Woolf and Poetry is forthcoming in Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. Enjoy my other book reviews here.
Our Church Too
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature
Our Church Too
My essay "Belief in Belonging" will be published in series form across Spring and Summer 2022 by Our Church Too. Enjoy more of my essays here,
Spotlight on my teaching
Writing. Going inward to share outward.
Check out this article by Betsy Rosso that shines on a light on my writing-intensive college courses, for which high school students earn Bard College credit.
The latest from Soul Forte: A Workshop to write & Talk
Mother's Day is just around the corner. In tribute to materning -- in the most expansive sense of the term -- and to all things majestic, maddening, and mysterious that stem therefrom, come to this workshop to write and talk about what you know in your heart to be true, if not popular or understood. Poetry by Kim Parko (from whom "despite our reservations, we do have kids" comes), Diotimus's reflections on Artemis, and Kahlil Gibran's thoughts on parenting will spur our writing, imagination, and conversation. Come!
Mother's Day Sunday, May 8th, 2022.
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, ET, Zoom.
Contact me for the zoom link!
Resurrection is an ancient yet modern concept and experience, from Phoenix's rising from the ashes to one's own hard-won decision to rise from devastation and step once more into the unkempt but fragrant garden of life. Join us to write, talk, and reimagine resurrection with poetry from around the world, across time, and in your own soul. Come!
Sunday, April 17, 2022.
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, ET, Zoom.
Contact me for the zoom link!
In her new book Curating Bracha: An Exhibition in Words and Light, Angelina Rodriguez writes the life of feminist and spiritual painter Bracha Ettinger as an exhibit of paintings. What splashes of color, lines of light, and curious shapes deliver you and imagined viewers "to the light available" in your every breath and thought? Join us for this two-session series to write, talk, and imagine your life as a series of paintings that heals both artist and viewer. Gather for this writing excursion into the gallery of the soul and write those streaks of light: your life.
Two Sundays, March 30 and April 3, 2022
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, ET, Zoom.
Contact me for the zoom link!
I am editor-in-chief of Soul Forte: A Journal for Spiritual Writing, which is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP).
Hello.
Poet. I write, read, + talk poetry. To me it's the language that makes -- and unmakes -- sense.
Professor. I teach writing, reading, + poetry for a living.
Writing Facilitator. I create space for people to write their way to their own discoveries, including that they are poets and writers.