writer, professor, facilitator, + Figure skater
Writer
I write and teach broadly across literature, queer experience and thought, and spirituality. My first book of poetry -- The Canaanite Woman -- was published by Wipf and Stock Publishers in June 2022, and can be purchased here. My second book -- "The Gospel According to B." -- was published in July 2024 by Unsolicited Press.
My poetry and essays appear or are forthcoming in a range of venues, including On Being, Tiferet, Untold Volumes, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, The Other Journal, Pensive, Soul-Lit, Rat's Ass Review, Dark Moon Lilith, After the Pause, and others. I am the recipient of the 2021 DIAJ Award in poetry from Door is a Jar Magazine, and my poetry was nominated for a Best of the Net Award in 2022. .
My academic articles on queer representations in literature appear in top-tier scholarly journals. Modernism/modernity and Criticism have published my research on, respectively, Virginia Woolf's queer entomology and Oscar Wilde's physio-sexuality. My article on listening to queer shame in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein appears in Studies in the Novel, and my article on queer quietness in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God appears in Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Cultures. My article on mountaineering and queer geologies in Woolf's To the Lighthouse appears in Modern Fiction Studies. My forthcoming article, "Calm Modernism: Virginia Woolf, Kazimir Malevich, and Eternal Rest," will appear in College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies in 2025. You can read my academic articles in their entirety here.
Professor
I am Associate Professor of the Humanities with the Bard Sequence Program, a division of Bard Early Colleges, in Washington, D.C. My teaching has been featured in an article by Betsy Rosso here, and Krista Tippett's On Being has published my reflections on teaching here .
I hold a Ph.D. in English from Indiana University, an M.F.A. in creative writing from The New School in New York City, and a B.A. in English with Distinction from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. I also hold an English Language Arts teaching license from the state of Ohio.
I teach restorative-oriented, writing-intensive, and student-directed classes. I recently presented my teaching innovation called "Building Academic Community through Alternative Assessment" at the Bard Sequence Symposium at Bard College.
I am just as comfortable teaching online as in-person, and I regularly attend seminars to reimagine teaching practices that nurture students' self-determination through the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College, the Open Society University Network (OSUN), Liberal Arts and Sciences Collaborative (LASC), Bard Master of Arts in Teaching Program, and PEN (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists) America.
Recent teaching workshops and symposiums include the following:
-Storytelling in the Liberal Arts Classroom: Using Storytelling to Build Community, Confidence, and Connection
-Scaffolding the Academic Writing Process
-What Innovations are Happening in LAS (Liberal Arts and Sciences) Education?
-The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century
-Understanding the Brain: Empowering Emotional Regulation in the Classroom
-ChatGPT and Liberal Arts & Sciences Pedagogy
-What is Teaching at the University?: Decolonizing the University and Possible Futures for a Global Alliance
-Restorative Words, Restorative Practices
-Building Academic Community through Alternative Assessment (Bard Sequence Symposium)
-Early College Fellowship Symposium
-Reading the Word + the World: Writing to Read for Today's Classrooms
-Creating Engaging Experiences in the Asynchronous Classroom
-Teaching Across Boundaries: Fostering Open and Respectful Exchange
-Student-Centered Assessments
-Experiencing Discovery
-Scaffolding Independence
-Online Assignments and Formative Feedback
-New Kinds of Attention: Writing to Learn
-Helping Students Help Themselves: Supporting Student Self-Determination (in three parts: "Self-Determination Instruction"; "Promoting Self-Advocacy at Bard and in the Workplace"; and "Academic Coaching: A Structured Conversation that Fosters Self-Determination in Students").
Director and Writing Facilitator
I am founder and director of the Institute for Spiritual Poetry. We offer writing workshops, group spiritual companioning, guest poet series, and publish a literary journal of participants' work and guest contributors. Check us out and join in!
I facilitate two spiritual writing-and-conversation gatherings: Soul Forte and Millions of Suns.
Soul Forte, an online spiritual writing-and-conversation workshop, is an informal gathering of people from around the world to read and write about inner immensity, what Emily Dickinson might call "bulletins from Immortality." Think of it as group spiritual companioning fueled by poetry, both the kind we read and the ones we ourselves write. Soul Forte welcomes people across all faiths and atheistic traditions, sexualities, gender identities, regions, abilities, races, and nationalities. We meet via Zoom every other Sunday. Soul Forte: A Journal for Spiritual Writing is Soul Forte's official publication and publishes participants' work.
I also facilitate Millions of Suns, a spiritual writing workshop for gay men to delight in their inborn radiance through reading, writing, laughing, and listening to the self and each other.
Join us! To learn more, please click the menu items above, or reach out to me here.
I regularly facilitate writing workshops and conversation groups for Centering Space, a spirituality & community center n Lakewood, Ohio. The Center for Spiritual Deepening in Alexandria, Virginia, invited me to facilitate a discussion series on the poetry of Marie Howe, a modern-day mystical poet.
Self-Knowledge Facilitator
I unite communities into shared experiences of wonder, curiosity, and surprise. I create collective experiences of beauty and inspiration for students and professionals from all walks of life, personalities, politics, races, regions, and religions. I offer tools to professionals -- from teachers to counselors, doctors, writers, pastors, and others -- to practice with their clients as well as to infuse into their self-care repertoire to prevent burnout and keep their practice fresh. My workshops are both casual and enlivening, cultivating curiosity and attentiveness, befriending blocks, and strengthening the stamina to listen athletically to others and oneself.
Figure Skater
A figure skater since the age of nine, I am the 2006 and 2010 Adult U.S. Figure Skating Midwestern champion. Across my competitive career, I have finished everywhere from first place to last place. Sometimes I passed U.S. Figure Skating tests on my first try. Other times I had to take a test five times before I passed. Figure skating is an excellent sport in which to befriend the ups and downs -- and ups again and down agains -- of life.
I am 100% certain the legendary Phoenix was a figure skater. My poem "Phoenix was a Figure Skater" appears in Creative Commitments, an occasional publication of Lehigh University's Center for Global Citizenship Education Through the Arts and Technology.
Though I have had to pause skating at various points in my life, the sport has nonetheless always been a constant presence, like the sky or family. My skating has reached the highest levels (Senior, Gold Medals) in both free skating and moves-in-the-field, as set by the U.S. Figure Skating Association. My favorite jumps are the double Salchow and double Lutz. My fair-weather friend is the double flip, and my nemesis is the double loop. I dream of one day landing another double Axel, at least once. :)
Education
Ph.D. in English Language and Literature, Indiana University, Bloomington.
M.A. in English Language and Literature, Indiana University, Bloomington.
M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry), The New School, New York City, NY.
B.A. in English with distinction, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.
Junior Year Study Abroad, Universitaet Hamburg, Germany.
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Funded to pursue my independent research project entitled "Masculinity, Femininity, and Figure Skating" with travel to Canada, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, China, and Japan.
