SewaneeLetters.com

Current Home: Carrollton, GA
Age: 40
Program: MFA
Year in the program: 2009 would by my 4th if I wasn’t so lame

Fill us in on your background. Schools attended, work situation, etc.
B.A. in Liberal Arts, Baylor University 1989
M.Ed. in Educational Psychology, University of Houston, 1992 (I think)
Ph.D. in Educational Research and Measurement, University of South Carolina, 1998

I teach graduate research courses at the University of West Georgia and am in my 11th year there. Also direct the doctoral program in School Improvement.

What led you to the School of Letters program?
A need to be in writing workshop with others serious about writing and who desire to better their craft. And it’s Sewanee. What else is there to say?

What writing/academic projects are you working on currently?
Creative work: creative non-fiction collection of stories; poetry chapbook; couple of short stories (fiction) that will never get to a final stage.
Professional work: ongoing revisions of a textbook on research (now in its 2nd ed) and a variety of research articles.
Favorite class so far at Sewanee:
Loved American Renaissance with Gatta and my writing workshops with Erin and Michael.
What would be your fantasy class or workshop at Sewanee, and who would teach?
Fantasy workshop would be Joyce Carol Oates teaching fiction via the drill sergeant instructional method…a survivor kind of thing where we compete not to get voted off the mountain.

What advice would you give to any prospective students?
Advice: get the reading lists in January and do all your reading before you come in June.

What are you reading these days?
Today I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The rest of the month will include some Gabriel García Márquez, Grace Paley, Kay Ryan, Seamus Heaney (Beowulf translation), and whatever else I bought at Atlanta Book Exchange last weekend.