Professional Summary
I received my MFA from Rutgers University-Newark and my PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to earning my graduate degrees, I worked as a community-based playwright, teacher, and theater artist, writing, directing and performing, as well as teaching poetry, playwriting, theater, literature, and curriculum design in schools, arts organizations, mental health care facilities, and jails.
My writing has been anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and published in Glamour, Creative Nonfiction, The Chattahoochee Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and The Rumpus, among others. In addition to winning Glamour magazine’s “Real-Life Essay Contest,” I have been a finalist for Fourth Genre’s Steinberg Essay Prize, The Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize for Fiction, and Narrative Magazine’s Prize for Fiction.
I teach introductory, intermediate, and upper level courses in English Composition and direct programs that engage UC students, faculty, and staff with the greater Cincinnati community including writer workshops at The School for the Creative and Performing Arts and Hike + Write, an outdoor writing initiative with Cincinnati Parks.
Education
PhD: University of Cincinnati (Creative Writing and Literature)
MFA: Rutgers University-Newark (Creative Writing - Fiction)
BA: Carleton College (English)