As a teacher and writer, I seek to cultivate—in myself and my students—an appetite for the countless ways that human consciousness can be represented, and thus the different forms that language—and story—can take. I’ve become increasingly interested in genre: how genre dictates the shape, sound and appearance of our information; how genre defines boundaries and sets limitations. It seems to me that if we acknowledge that the rules of the game are often dictated by our genres—categories in which particular types of communication-events take place, according to whatever prescripted patterns the genre in question demands—then the experience of inhabiting a particular genre, of understanding its conventions in order to discover ways to expand it, to break it apart and make something new, can be an incredibly liberating—if not essential—exercise for writers to engage in. It is, therefore, an activity I am committed to exploring further, both in the classroom and in my own writing.
Arts + Crafts: Creative Nonfiction
A film highlighting an exhibit by my 2014 Creative Nonfiction Graduate Workshop students for VT University’s Course Exhibit Initiative.
In 2013, I was CIDER’s Teacher of the Week.
In 2012, The Collegiate Times wrote this article about me.
In 2009, I won the Sporn Award for teaching excellence in introductory subjects.
If you’re interested in checking out a reading list, click here.