writer and teacher
An excerpt from my next novel, Killingly, is now up at TriQuarterly, Northwestern University’s literary journal. This is the Mt. Holyoke College novel, the Honeycrisp apple of my eye, my current labor of love — sadly neglected this summer due to the demands of organizing a move to Hawai’i from Ohio. I’m en route at…
First: I’m moving to Hawai’i! Specifically, to Honolulu, to teach creative writing and literature at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. You can see my shiny official page on the UHM website. I am tremendously excited about this new position, not just because it’s tenure-track but because it will give me loads of opportunities to…
It’s been a busy summer and fall, blog friends! I’m more than halfway through my second fall semester at the College of Wooster and I’ve just finished a draft of Killingly, also known here as “the Mt. Holyoke novel.” It clocked in at more than 151,000 words, which officially makes it a Big Book. (Alcestis…
First up, a link to a great post on the eternal MFA question. I’m directing four senior independent study projects this year, all in creative writing. None of my students will be going directly to graduate school for creative writing, though three of them are considering applying in the future. Their projects are due at…
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see the back of 2011. Really — I can’t. It was a year full of professional milestones, and I had a wonderful time teaching my first classes at Wooster this fall and getting to know the town and college, but it was harder on the personal…
First: Ed Battistella of Literary Ashland just posted an interview with me about Alcestis, Killingly, my dissertation, and numerous other topics. I read from Alcestis at Ashland’s wonderful Bloomsbury Books in 2010 and was interviewed for Ashland’s “Open Books, Open Minds” TV program when I was in town. (My parents retired to Ashland, and it’s…
I didn’t mean to disappear for quite so long. First I had to finish the last few line edits on my dissertation and file it, officially; and then I wrote more Killingly, worked on finding a place to live in Wooster (and I finally have, after the house I thought I’d secured fell through), worked…
Today, at least, I’m writing about Boston in the 1890s through the eyes of a retired Congregationalist pastor who is about to have a nervous breakdown of sorts (or possibly a stroke, I haven’t decided yet). Here’s part of what he sees: That print was produced only three years before this character visited Boston to…
It’s been forever since I’ve done a meme like this, but I’ve seen this book meme circulating and I’m brain-fried enough to need some structure for my content this evening. So! The book I am reading: I’m about 3/4 of the way through The Ambassadors, which I’d tried once before and hadn’t gotten into. I…
That was a busy week! Two cross-half-the-country trips, both overnight, and I somehow managed to avoid the worst snarls of weather-related travel drama. But I’m very glad to be back in Austin, where it’s supposed to hit 70 this weekend. Texas, sometimes I love you a lot. I keep tagging things to post here and…