Saint Michael's College

Title: Instructor of English

Education: B.A. Duke University; Ph.D. Harvard University

Areas of Expertise/Research Interests: Writing and reading fiction

Testimonial: If you show students how much you care about them and about your material, they almost always respond with good attention and effort. And they don't seem to mind bad jokes.

What inspires students the most in your classes and/or your academic area? They seem to love discussing how stories work, thinking about why people do the things they do, and hearing stories read aloud. I think they know that stories are how we live.

What kinds of unique opportunities are available to students in your classes or department? The small size of the writing workshops makes it possible for students to be true collaborators as they read each others' drafts and help each other create believable, well-shaped stories. And almost every year there's at least one student who wants to go further by creating an independent study in fiction writing. Last summer I directed a student who had won a grant in order to write a novel. Our literary journal, The Onion River Review, is entirely edited by students.

Favorite quotes: "Truthfulness anywhere means a heightened complexity." - Adrienne Rich
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx