satire, southern gothic, short fiction, the novel
literary theory, travel wherever there's good food and wine, training for a marathon, permaculture
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About Me
<p>I've been writing all my life, working my way through the genres of poetry, playwriting, short fiction, and the novel, as well as acquiring an MFA and PhD in English. I have three novels under my belt: the first, a brilliantly instructive demonstration on what not to do for a breakout novel (16 characters, five plot lines). The second, written in 72 hours for the 2011 international 3-day Novel Writing Contest, and which placed in the top ten, I intend to revise after my current project and third novel, HALF OF NO, has found its wings. I have written the equivalent of two short story collections, and have stories published in The Literary Review, Brooklyn Review, and Del Sol Review. I've also received a MacArthur Scholarship in Fiction and several awards for playwriting, short fiction, and poetry.</p>
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<p>Currently, I'm a professor of writing and literature at SUNY, a miraculous fact since a long time ago, I dropped out of college to work in a canning factory in Alaska, then backpacked around the world, hitchhiking through China, wandering around India, and living for awhile in Tokyo and Taipei. Settled at last in Brooklyn, I occasionally perform my prose poems and do readings at venues such as The Knitting Factory, Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, KGB Bar, and Cornelian Street Cafe.</p>
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<p>My goal is to publish upmarket literary novels, as well as a collection (or two) of my short stories.</p>
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<p>A few of many writers who inspire me: Flannery O'Connor, J.M. Coetzee, Marilyn Robinson, Robert Olen Butler.</p>