POEM & INTERVIEW*
The Steps
(feature includes audio stream of me reading the poem)
*NOTE: When linking to this publication on a mobile device, please rotate to landscape mode to preserve the poem's formatting.
I'm excited to announce that my autobiographical poem "The Steps" has been published—along with a thoughtful Q&A and an audio recording of me reading the poem—by the phenomenal poetry education & advocacy org, Brooklyn Poets. It's such an honor to have my poem featured as part of this marvelous, longstanding series, alongside so many sensational writers. My gratitude extends at once to the editors of Poet of the Week and the entire staff at Brooklyn Poets, as this publication is a beautiful way to close not just the year, but an unforgettable season (across six months!) of teaching my debut weekly drop-in class as part of BKP's incredible programming. It's been my privilege and an inimitable delight to serve the org's brilliant community as a faculty member—especially during the inaugural year of their stunning brick-and-mortar space. Which I urge to you to visit at 144 Montague St. Go, yo!
POEM
Thrilled to have one of my poems housed in this beautiful 15th anniversary edition of The Red Wheelbarrow literary journal, which is published annually out of William Carlos Williams' hometown of Rutherford, NJ. To learn more about the noble publishing org and to order a copy of the journal, visit The Red Wheelbarrow Poets.
TWO POEMS
and
I'm honored to have two works published as "companion poems" in the spring 2022 print issue of Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities. I'm also grateful that this beautiful journal will now be the hand-held home to these deeply personal poems, written in honor of my late father and mother, respectively.
POEM (print & video)
PHOTOBOOK REMEDIATION
by Walt Whitman
This photobook is an inspired remediation of the classic Walt Whitman poem "Song Of The Open Road," which first appeared in the 1865 edition of "Leaves of Grass." I composed this eBook in June of 2011 while pursuing my B.A. in Creative Writing at Florida State University, as the final project to a fantastic course entitled "Rhetoric and Composition in the Digital Age."
HUMOR ESSAY
I composed this "critical" essay in 2012 while pursuing my B.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University. The essay won first place in the nonfiction category of The Kudzu Review's annual writing contest, and was published in their Spring 2013 issue.
EPISTOLARY ESSAY
Again Like April: A Love Letter for the Mystically Disinclined
This essay first took shape in 2013 as an "About" page to a weekly blog I thought I might keep to chronicle the unexpected—and unimaginably sublime and meaningful—year I lived in writerly retreat on an apple orchard in Eastern Iowa (which yes, proved in no time flat to be the exact choose-your-own heartland adventure in which you do not keep a blog). Over a decade later, I've evolved it into the epistolary essay I'm self-publishing here. At its core, the work is a love letter to my fifth-grade teacher Miss Peters, who I'll forever cherish as the noble, silent partner to whatever business I get down to with page and pen.
MY FIRST POEM*
*Composed at age ten, I believe this poem endures as one of my strongest works of verse. And juuuuust to be clear, my backyard was a forest, I had a Spirograph and a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine! Purple bedroom walls with huge rainbows and clouds painted on them—by my dad! The complete hardcover Nancy Drew Mystery Series. Friends! I do not recall looking at birds.
CRITICAL ESSAY
The Poetics of Trust: An Examination of the Nature and Significance of Trust in a Poem's Speaker
This scholarly essay was composed as a key requirement for the completion of MFA in Poetry. And yes I wrote it in my pajamas with award-worthy bedhead while sipping a glass of oaky red cursing long-ass critical essays the whole time. I believe deeply in its central theme and think you just might too, so come on-a my idea-house with your beverage of choice and give it a readerly shot!
TRIBUTE POETRY RECITATION (voice/bass duo)
The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab Nye
Click image for full text.
POEM
The Daily Palette was an online journal published by the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History from 2006 - 2018. The goal of the journal was to heighten interest, awareness and appreciation of the visual arts and writing through recognizing the efforts of Iowa-identified artists and communities. In 2013, I had the joy and privilege of calling Iowa home while living in writing residence on a small farmstead just east of Iowa City, as sponsored by two incredible private patrons. This publication was an honor in that the written work was "curated" by members of the Iowa Review editorial staff.
VISUAL ESSAY
In Art We Trust: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Paradox
This eBook is a visual essay I composed while pursuing my B.A. in Creative Writing from Florida State University, for a powerful course entitled "Literature and Culture of The Great Depression."
PERSONAL ESSAY
In 2016, I successfully presented this essay to the admissions committee of the Master of Arts in Teaching Literature Program at Bard College. Sadly, after attending my first semester in the program, I had to withdraw due to complications that emerged from a personal loss.
POETRY RECITATIONS
"Walt Whitman Practices Holding Up a New York Deli"
&
"Sammichele di Bari"
NOTE:
Since recording these clips, both poems have evolved for forthcoming publication. These videos were originally created and shared as social media posts during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.
