Education

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, Ph.D. in English with a Creative (Poetry) Dissertation,
2005-present
                        Concentrations: Poetry (Distinction on Comprehensive Exam, March 2008),
                        American Literature before 1900, 
                        Nineteenth-Century American and British Women's Poetry,
                        Contemporary Women's Poetry and Feminist Theory

Emerson College, Boston, MA, M.F.A. in creative writing with concentration in poetry, 2003-2005 
                        Thesis Chair: Bill Knott         Thesis Reader: Peter Jay Shippy

Bethany College, Bethany, WV, B.A. in English with distinction on comprehensive examinations,
1999-2003

Visiting Student at Magdalen College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, via Bethany College
Completed tutorials in British Romanticism and Eighteenth-Century British Novels, fall 2002

Study-abroad student at Regent’s College, London, UK, via Bethany College, spring 2002 

Publications

Co-editor with Jesse Graves, Outscape: Writings on Fences and Frontiers, KWG Press, 2008.

Poem, "Religion," Motif: Writing by Ear, 2008.

Poem, “At the Top of the Mountain,” Yemassee, fall 2007

Poem, “For My Mom: A Beach Radish, Cut Decoratively,” The Movable Nest: a Mother/Daughter Companion, November 2007

Poem, “Girl Dream,” New Millennium Writings, fall 2007

Poem, “Antique Anodyne (Chromatic),” Caduceus, fall 2007

Poems, “Lunch,” and “When Valerie Gives You a Necklace,” Review Americana, summer 2007

Poem, “To Become Audrey Hepburn,” EVA Mag, March 2007

Articles, Higher Ground (the University of Tennessee’s Arts and Sciences alumni magazine), April 2007

Poem, “The Girl Down the Hall,” Low Explosions: Writings on the Body, 2006

Poem, “Goldenrods, 20 Years Apart,” EVA Mag, November 2006

Poem, “Tamora Watches through the Kitchen Window,” EVA Mag, July 2006

Article, “Arts in the City,” EVA Mag, July 2006

Poem, “Next to Godliness,” New Millennium Writings, July 2006

Poems, “Tell Me How Zeros Spread” and “In Old Dutch Paintings,” Passages North, Winter/Spring 2006

Poems, “I Pray to Safety” and “Perfect Living,” Washington Square, Summer 2005

Poem, “The Gap,” Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, spring 2004

Employment

Freelance editor, 2006-present

Poetry Workshop Instructor, "Experimental Poetics," Young Writers' Institute, University of Tennessee, March 2008

Rhetoric and Composition Instructor, University of Tennessee, 2005-present
Created and now teach a special topics English 102 course, "Inquiry into Women and Myth"

Writer, Higher Ground (the University of Tennessee’s Arts and Sciences alumni magazine), 2006-2007

Substitute Poetry Workshop Instructor, University of Tennessee, 2006-present

Research Assistant for Dr. Marilyn Kallet, Professor, University of Tennessee, 2006-present

Assistant Editor of manuscript edited by Marilyn Kallet, The Movable Nest: a Mother/Daughter Companion, summer 2006, summer 2007

Intern, EVA Magazine (reporter, writer, photographer), summer 2006

Student Assistant to Dr. Dawn Skorczewski Director of  Freshmen Writing, Emerson College, 2003-2005
Worked on various academic projects for Dr. Skorczewski, completed research for and assembled the bibliography for Dr. Skorczewski’s book, Teaching One Moment at a Time (UMass Press, 2005)

Reporter, The Weirton Daily Times newspaper, Weirton, WV, summer 2000 and summer 2001
Wrote more than 100 feature stories, news stories, editorials, and full-page advertisements, conducted all interviews and research for stories

Writer, Shadyside Summer Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA, summer 2000
Researched and interviewed artist Burton Morris, wrote cover story on Morris for festival’s annual publication

Conferences

Panel, "The Movable Nest," Southern Festival of Books, Nashville, TN, October 2008.

Awarded scholarship to and attended 20th Annual Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference, Oak Ridge, TN, March 2008

AWP Conference, New York, New York, February 2008
Paper “Editing as Outreach: When Communities Hear Their Own Voices” presented on panel “Four Generations of Women Discuss Literary Partnering with the Wider Community Beyond Academia”
with Marilyn Kallet, Barbara Bogue, and Elaine Zimmerman

The Decaying Sense of Leviathan: A Critically Creative Conference, Département d’études anglaises—Université de Montréal, March 2007
Completed a 5-hour workshop led by poet Yedda Morrison and read at the conference’s Oral Anthology.

Work accepted for poetry reading at the University of Dayton’s LitFest, March 2007

Work accepted for poetry reading at the University of Alberta’s Women Writing and Reading Conference, March 2007

Poetry reading at the Pennsylvania College English Association Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2006

Poetry reading at the Twentieth Century Literature and Culture Conference, University of Louisville, February 2006    

Service

"Reviving the Senses with Poetry" workshop with Marilyn Kallet, the Wellness Community, Knoxville, Tennessee, October 2008.

Novel Screener for the Peter Taylor Prize, Knoxville, TN, summer 2007

Judge, University of Tennessee’s Bain-Swigget Poetry Prize, April 2007

Writing and Healing Workshop, the Wellness Community, Knoxville, Tennessee, February 2007

Member, Knoxville Writers' Guild Board of Directors, 2006-present

Writing and Healing Workshop, the Wellness Community, Knoxville, Tennessee, February 2006

Readings

Literacy Imperative, April 2008

Knoxville Writers' Guild, March 2008

Carpe Librum Bookstore, Knoxville, TN, December 2007

GRAIL reading series, University of Tennessee, September 2007

Knoxville Poetry Festival, April 2007

Hodges Library, University of Tennessee (opening for Marilyn Kallet), February 2007

Knoxville Writers' Guild, December 2006

Low Explosions: Writings on the Body Launch Party, September 2006

Knoxville Public Library, May 2006

University of Tennessee, February 2006

Awards

Writer's Residency, Casa Libre en la Solana, Tucson, AZ, October 2007

Nominated for Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, April 2007

Fall 2007 John Hurt Fisher Research Assistantship, University of Tennessee, March 2007

Nominated for John C. Hodges Excellence in Teaching Award, University of TN, February 2007

Writer's Residency, Casa Libre en la Solana, Tucson, AZ, November 2006

Summa Cum Laude, Bethany College, 2003

Languages

French: intermediate (reading), beginner (speaking)

Spanish: intermediate (reading and speaking)