Fiction

Allegheny Review; Clerestory – A Brown University Journal of the Arts; Issues; Crosscurrents Review;Bricolage; West Wind Review; Fishtrap Anthology

Poetry

College Poetry Review (National Poetry Press); The Magazine; Laurus; Chowan Review; Syzygy; Fishtrap Anthology

Essays

Yakima Herald Republic; Fishtrap Anthology

Sad Publishing Story

Was under lucrative one-year book contract with Pocket Books from 1999-2000 for a memoir set (mostly) in Elgin, Oregon.  Editor fired, book cancelled, tears shed, teeth gnashed.

Writing Prizes

Academy of American Poets; Vreelands Prize, Mari Sandoz Prizes; Syzygy (Best Story); Fellowship, Fishtrap Writing Conference; Fellowship, Fishtrap Writer’s Retreat

Also & Currently

I’m a professional jazz trumpeter, composer, lyricist.  I’m still waiting on my current agent to sell my most recent memoir,Tinker’s Links — A Par-Four Western, while writing my next book.

What studying and writing about literature means to me…

is empowering my students to make and support independent meaning of what they read, as opposed to simply compiling (or memorizing for a short time) the meaning others have made of a text.  To state it in an elevator pitch to a movie producer: “human experience and critical thinking skills meet canonized literary expressions depicting myriad aspects of human experience, where everyone is grasping for meaning while being vaguely aware that everyone dies in the end.”  Hopefully it’s a long elevator ride, and Kevin Costner is playing me and someone else is playing everyone else.