CURRENT: Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the Interdisciplinary Humanities program; Coordinator of Interdisciplinary Humanities, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, with teaching interests in creative writing, the literature of medicine and disease, captivity and imprisonment, American and British literature, women's literature, contemporary novels and stories.
EDUCATION
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
  • Ph.D. (1998) The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Major Area of Study: Development of the Novel with attention to the early Twentieth Century Modern Novel. Creative Dissertation, a novel entitled Shagbark, with critical introduction, directed by Dr. Darrell Bourque.
  • M.F.A. and M.A. (1995) McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA. Major Areas of Study: Fiction Writing and Literature. Creative Thesis directed by Robert Olen Butler.
  • B.A. (1984) Marshall University, Huntington, WV. Major Area of Study:  Newspaper/Editorial Journalism.
  • 2011 – Present - Assistant Professor, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, teaching a variety of courses including Creative Writing, Modern Fiction, Literary Studies, American Literature Surveys, Women’s Literature, Medicine and Disease in the Humanities, Plagues and Poxes, Magic Realism, Humanities Surveys (Baroque to present), The Fallen Woman in Nineteenth Century Literature, Louisiana Literature, freshman honors English, among others.
  • 2002 – 2011 - Lecturer, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2002-2011.
  • 1998 – 2002 - Adjunct Instructor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 1998-2002.
2002 – Present                  The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Humanities Program

  • Managing humanities program, creating new courses, scheduling classes, recruiting faculty, encouraging collaboration among faculty in various departments
  • Facilitating communication with civic, philanthropic group, the Friends of the Humanities, donor to the College of Liberal Arts and the College of the Arts
BOOKS
SHORT STORIES & POETRY
ESSAYS & INTERVIEWS
PUBLICATIONS
  • The Current That Carries. Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press, 2016. Winner of the 2015 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
  • Box of Blue Horses. Arlington, Va: Gival Press, 2013. Winner of 2012 Gival Press Poetry Competition.

  • “The Sorrows You Can’t Enter.” The Georgia Review. 69 (2015): 625-639.
  • “Feeding Instructions.” The McNeese Review. 49 (2011): 111-132.
  • “Vandalism.” Glimmer Train Stories. 72 (2009): 161-183.
  • “Crossing with Sassafras.” Glimmer Train Stories. 47 (2003): 60-77.
  • “In Which the Persona Confesses to Boxing the Blue Horses,” Water~Stone Review. 14 (2011): 232-233.

  • "When Bad Things Happen to Good Characters." Ron Hogan's Beatrice. Oct. 2016. Online.
  • "The Accidental Bonsai and Strategies for Pruning." Glimmer Train Bulletin (116). Sept. 2016. Online.
  • “Sinopia for the Writer’s Toolbox.” Writers Ask: Glimmer Train Quarterly Newsletter. Spring 2011.
  • “Editor’s Introduction [to Quiltworks],” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Fall 2008 (25.2): 3-8.
  • “A Quilt is a Painting is a Photograph is a Quilt: An Interview with Hollis Chatelain.” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Fall 2008 (25:2): 48-59.
  • “Editor’s Introduction [to Gateways],” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Spring 2008 (25.1): 3-6..
  •  “Editor’s Introduction [to Forms and Dreams].” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Spring 2006 (23.1): 3-6.
  • “Editor’s Introduction [to Blues and Jazz].” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Fall 2006 (23.2): 3-6.
  • “Editor’s Introduction [to Inspirations from the Cave].” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Fall 2005 (22.2): 3-6.
  • “Editor’s Introduction [to Walter Inglis Anderson].” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Special Issue (21.2, 22.1): 9-12.
  • “Interview with Joe Moorman [mosaic artist and painter],” Interdisciplinary Humanities. Fall 2003 (20.2): 60-70.
CREATIVE & RESEARCH AWARDS
TEACHING & SERVICE AWARDS
ENGLISH & HUMANITIES COURSES TAUGHT
COMMUNITY CLASSES IN LITERATURE & THE HUMANITIES
EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE
READINGS & CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Stories for The Current That Carries. The University of Georgia Press. 2015.
  • Faculty Travel Grant, Univ. of Louisiana Lafayette for presentation at the Humanities Education and Research Conference, San Francisco, April 2015.
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, New England Festival of Books for Box of Blue Horses.   2014.
  • Honorable Mention, Eric Hoffer Award for Independent Books for Box of Blue Horses, 2014.
  • ATLAS – Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars, state-awarded, one-year paid sabbatical for work on collection of short stories, funding by the Louisiana Board of Regents. 2009-2010.
  • Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship Award with a $5,000 stipend for creative fiction, funded by Louisiana Endowment for the Arts, 2001.
  • University Graduate Fellowship, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette, 1995-98.
  • Graduate Foundation Fellowship, McNeese State University, 1994-95.
  • Achievement in the Humanities, Humanities Education and Research Association, in recognition of book publication and contributions to the humanities. 2014.
  • Ray Authement Excellence in Teaching Award. University-wide award, named for past UL Lafayette president. The award is given to two professors each year, and is funded by the UL Lafayette Foundation. The selection process includes a nomination at both department- and college-levels, and is supported by recommendation letters from peers and previous students. Spring 2010.
  • Outstanding Service Award, Humanities Education and Research Association, for five-year term as Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Interdisciplinary Humanities. 2009.
2002 – Present                  The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Assistant Professor & Lecturer

  • Caged: Human Responses to Captivity (Engl 370/Humn 300)) a special-topics course of my design, exploring slave narratives, Holocaust and Gulag memoirs, as well as contemporary works dealing with human imprisonment and enslavement: Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Northup's Twelve Years a Slave, Wiesel's Night, Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son, Emma Donoghue's Room, Mohamedou Ould Slahi's Guantanamo Diary. Repeating.
  • Medicine and Disease (Engl 370/Humn 300) – a special-topics course of my design, exploring the medical humanities across the disciplines of literature, art, and film: Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilych," Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," Margaret Edson's Wit, Kushner's Angels in America, Joseph Sargent's Miss Evers Boys. Repeating.
  • Fiction Writing (Engl 325) – a 300-level workshop emphasizing the basic elements involved in writing short stories and novel chapters with the objective of helping students develop their craft. Repeating.
  • Introduction to Creative Writing (Engl 223) - a course introducing students to writing in the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama. Repeating.
  • Modern Fiction (English 320) – a course in the study of contemporary novels and short stories, with a strong emphasis on twentieth- and twenty-first-century texts. Repeating.
  • Plagues and Poxes (Engl 370/Humn 300) – a course investigating literature and art forms that express the anguish, fears, and hopes of people during times of epidemic, beginning with the Bubonic plague of the fourteenth century and ending with the AIDS epidemic: Boccaccio's "Introduction" to The Decameron, Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, Katherine Anne Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," Kushner's Angels in America. Repeating.
  • The Fallen Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Engl 370/Humn 300) – a course exploring this recurring theme in novels, paintings, and music in France, England, Russia and The United States:  Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Hardy's Tess of the D'Urberville's, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Verdi's La Traviata. Repeating.
  • Women’s Literature (Engl 380) – a course studying themes, contexts, and styles in women’s writing, with Gilbert & Gubar’s The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. Repeating.
  • Jacob’s Ladder: Angel Encounters in the 20th Century (Engl 370/Humn 300) – a course focusing on the literary and artistic expressions of angel encounters in the literature, visual arts, and films of the 20th century: Kushner's Angels in America, Rilke's Duino Elegies, García-Márquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," Elizabeth Knox's The Vintner's Luck, Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire. Repeating.
  • The Magic and the Real (Engl 370/Humn 300) – a course examining writers and artists whose work explores fantastic or supernatural phenomena, including Gabriel García Márquez, Frida Kahlo, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Marc Chagall and Antonio Gaudí. Repeating.
  • Modernism (Engl 370/Humn 300) – an interdisciplinary course exploring early twentieth century literature, art, music, architecture, and history: Joyce, Woolf, Eliot, H.D. Wilfred Owen, Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Kandinsky. Repeating.
  • Louisiana Literature (Engl 333) – a course highlighting major literary works and authors in Louisiana.
  • Writing Poetry (Engl 326) - a 300-level workshop emphasizing basic elements and techniques involved in writing poetry with the objective of helping students develop their craft. Repeating.
  • Humanities Survey II (Humn 152) – survey course introducing students to history, art, literature, music, philosophy and architecture, from the Baroque period to the present. 
  • Novel and Short Story (English 204) – an introduction for non-English majors..
  • American Literature Surveys I and II – sophomore level courses designed to give an overview of American literature, essays, fiction, poetry, and drama. Repeating.
  • Honors American Literature Survey – course that combines American Literature I and II in one semester. Repeating.
  • Honors Freshman English Seminar – an introductory writing course for honors students. Repeating.
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities RELIC Scholar and Discussion Leader
  • “Encounter in Louisiana.”. Six-week course on literature centered in Louisiana, a RELIC (Readings in Literature and Culture) course sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Vermilion Parish Library, Spring 2013.
  •  “Becoming American.” Six-week course focusing on the literature of immigrants in the United States. Lafayette Parish Library, Fall 2006.
  • “Encounter in Louisiana.” Iberia Parish Library, Fall 2005.
  • “Encounter in Louisiana.” Vermilion Parish Library, Abbeville, La. Fall 2002.
  •  “Becoming American” – The Carnegie Library in Jennings, La. 2001.
 
Books and Film Series – Friends of the Humanities
Scholar/Discussion Leader
  • Plagues and Poxes – five-week course held for members of the Friends of the Humanities, focusing on selected books and films related to plagues and other pandemics. Fall 2007.
  • Jacob’s Ladder: Angels in the 20th Century – five-week course held for members of the Friends of the Humanities, focusing on magic realism in books and films. Spring 2006.
 
Spring 2002 — National Endowment for the Humanities
Scholar/Discussion Leader
  • “The Steinbeck Centennial:” a two-part lecture series on John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and East of Eden at the Iberia Parish Library, provided by a grant from the NEH and Friends of the Library.
2003-2008                                           Interdisciplinary Humanities
  • Editor-in-Chief, Interdisciplinary Humanities, a peer-reviewed journal featuring essays by teachers in the humanities for teachers in the humanities, affiliated with the Humanities Education and Research Association (HERA). Planned, organized, and produced eleven issues. Solicited essays, collaborated with authors, referees, and occasional guest editors. Designed layout and paginated two issues, acquired cover art, produced PDFs for UL Lafayette Printing Services, oversaw copyediting, label production. Solicited and acquired funding for journal’s production.
1988-1992                                       The Lincoln Journal, Hamlin, WV
  • Managing Editor, Reporter, Page Designer, Photographer for The Lincoln Journal/Weekly News Sentinel, Hamlin, West Virginia.
  • “The [Im]Patient-Prisoner: Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward as a Critique on the Nature of Medical Confinement.” Humanities Education and Research Association Conference. New Orleans, La., March 23-26, 2016.
  •  “Beyond the Binaries of Life and Death in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and Bill T. Jones’s Still/Here.” Humanities Education and Research Association Conference. San Francisco, CA., April 8-11, 2015.
  • Box of Blue Horses. Invited Speaker: Poetry Reading and Craft Workshop. New Voices Symposium, Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, Pa. April 2014.
  • “Invisible and Visible Humans in Medicine and Disease Texts:  The Quest for More Humane Doctoring and Caretaking.” Humanities Education and Research Association Conference. Washington, D.C., Feb. 28 - March 3, 2014.
  • Box of Blue Horses Poetry Reading. Vermilion Parish Library, Abbeville, La. Feb. 6, 2014.
  • Box of Blue Horses Poetry Reading. Ernest J. Gaines Center, Edith Dupré Library, Lafayette. November 2013.
  • “Sacred and Secular: The ‘Ungraspable’ and ‘Ungrasping’ Angels of Rilke and Klee.“ Humanities Education and Research Association Conference—March 2013—Houston, Tx.
  • “Plagues and Poxes: A Course for Our Time.” Humanities Education and Research Association—March 2009—Chicago, Ill.
  • “Angel Jacob’s Ladder: Angel Encounters in Contemporary Culture.” National Association for Humanities Education—Spring 2007—San Francisco, Calif.
  • “The Art of Losing: Magic and Real Lamentations in the Work of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall,” National Association for Humanities Education—Spring 2005—Richmond, Va.
  • “The Redemptive Goat in the Work of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall.” South Central Christianity and Literature Conference—Spring 2004—New Orleans, La.
  • “Forbidden Knowledge: Reading and the Fallen Woman in the Nineteenth Century.” National Association for Humanities Education—Spring 2003—San Antonio, Texas.
  • “Seductive Texts: Eroticism and the Reading Woman.” South Central Modern Language Association—Fall 2003—Hot Springs, Ark.
  • Chair, Regional Fictional Writers’ panel in October. South Central Modern Language Association--Fall 2002—Austin, Texas.
  •  “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pigeon: Wallace Stevens’ ‘Sunday Morning’ from the Eyes of an Amateur Birdwatcher.” South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature--2002 —New Orleans, LA.
  • “The Reading,” a short story. Associated Writing Programs--2002—New Orleans, LA.                      
  • “Unwanted Extras: Christ Figures in Melville’s ‘Bartleby,’ & O’Connor’s ‘The Displaced Person.’ South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature--2001—Baton Rouge, LA.
  •  “Toward Separate Redemptions: Faulkner’s Joe Christmas and O’Connor’s Hazel Motes.” South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature--2000 —New Orleans, LA.