An Iowa College in the Liberal Arts Tradition
Selected Publications
Review-Essays
For Bloom, where I am a staff writer:
Cross-published at The Millions:
“Private Lives, Artful Truths: Joan Chase’s Midwestern Eden.”
“Growing Into Compassion: On Anna Sewell and Black Beauty.”
“Sybille Bedford: Resilience and Grace.”
“Collateral Gifts: The Poetry and Journey of Spencer Reece.”
“Abigail Thomas: Accidentally Deliberate.”
“Diana Athill: The Sufficient Self.”
For Los Angeles Review of Books:
“The Weird Sisters.” [Print Edition.]
“Belle Dame Sans Merci: On Angela Carter.” [Online Edition].
Creative Nonfiction
In edited collections:
“A Miniature Handbook for New Women Activists.” Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on
Fracking in America (Ice Cube Press, 2015.)
“The Fruits of Memory.” Southern Cultures
Reprinted in Cornbread Nation 2: The Best of Southern Food Writing, ed. John
Egerton. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
“Traveling to Mary.” The Best Travel Writing, Vol 9, ed. Tim Cahill. San Francisco: Solas
Press, 2012: 156-175.
In journals:
“The Spinning Self: Pottery and the Rest of My Life.” Bloom.
“Spiral.” A River & Sound Review (http://www.riverandsoundreview.org).
“The Odd Girls: Flannery O’Connor and Me.” Shenandoah.
“Notes on a Flood.” Inspire(d) Magazine.
“Dreaming of Eudora.” The South Carolina Review.
Short Fiction
“Wrestling the Angel.” Inch (Spring 2015).
“Misfit.” Thumbnail Magazine.
“Burning Lou.” Fiction Southeast (http://fictionsoutheast.com).
“Fairhope.” The Carolina Quarterly.
“Mansions.” O. Henry Festival Stories 2005.
“Explosions.” North Carolina Literary Review.
“Traveling Grace.” Yemassee.
“Wonders.” StoryQuarterly.
“Praying for Ruth.” The Carolina Quarterly.
Scholarly and Pedagogical Essays
“Hurling Yourself Against the Beautiful: Faulkner and Creativity.” In William Faulkner:
Critical Insights, ed. Kathryn S. Artuso (Salem Press, 2013).
Review of Daisy Hay’s Young Romantics (Keats-Shelley Journal, 2011.)
“Larry Brown,” “Samuel Minturn Peck,” and “Hollis Summers.” Invited entries in updated
edition of Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary, eds. Joseph Flora and
Amber Vogel. Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
“‘The Common Gifts of Heaven’: Animals and Moral Education in Anna Letitia Barbauld’s
‘The Mouse’s Petition’ and ‘The Caterpillar.’” Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic
Text 8 (June 2002). Online. Internet. <http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/corvey/articles
cc08_n02.html>. 26 paragraphs. Journal title changed in 2005 to Romantic
Textualities: Literature and Print Culture 1780-1840; article available at
http://www.romtext.org.uk/articles/cc08_n02/.
“‘When Fantasy Meant Survival’: Writing, Class, and the Oral Tradition in the
Autobiographies of Rick Bragg and Harry Crews.” The Mississippi Quarterly LIII:1
(Winter 1999-2000): 89-110.
Other Writing
Regular postings at Luther College “Ideas and Creations” Faculty Blog
Writing Sample
My short-short story “Fairhope,” in The Carolina Quarterly, Spring 2006
Selected Professional Activities
Bread Loaf/Orion Environmental Writers Conference
Bread Loaf Writers Conference
Tin House Summer Writers Workshop
Sewanee Writers Conference (Tennessee Williams Scholar)
Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference
Auburn University Writers’ Conference (as a faculty member)
Selected Campus Projects/Governance Work
Founder and co-organizer, annual Luther College Faculty Research Symposium
Faculty sponsor, Sigma Tau Delta (English honor society)
Chair, Humanities and Fine Arts Division (2014-2017)
Chair, Faculty Organization Committee (2015-2016)
Member, Faculty Organization Committee (2014-2017)