I’m a Beloit alum (class of ’90), who dreamed of teaching at a small liberal arts college like Beloit, and I’m grateful to be here. I teach courses in creative writing and literature. My interests include the long poem, prose poetry, and poetry by contemporary women poets, and I’m committed to making work by underrepresented poets central to my courses.  I’ve taught writing courses on fairy tales, writing about adolescence, and Venice. The resources at Beloit—the Logan and Wright museums and Archives in particular—enrich my teaching. 

After Beloit, I attended the University of Montana, where I earned my MFA, and The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where I earned a Ph.D. 

My poetry has appeared in journals such as The Cincinnati Review, Field, Gulf Coast, The Iowa Review, and Poetry. My first book of poetry, Troy, Unincorporated, recast Chaucer’s long poem “Troilus and Criseyde” as a contemporary story of love and loss set in south-central Wisconsin, and was published by The University of Chicago in 2012. I’ve recently completed a manuscript of prose poems that engages with Montaigne’s essays, childhood, the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, our environmental crisis, and hell in general.

Beloit is a place where you are encouraged to live a meaningful life shaped by passion and curiosity. It challenged and fostered my love of writing and reading as a student and continues to do so as a professor.