About Me

I’m a Lecturer in Writing at Indiana University Southeast, an award-winning writer and columnist, and former member of the executive committee of the American Jewish Press Association and a current member of the board of InKY, which runs the InKY Reading Series. I also direct the Writers Workshop Project.

At IUS I teach a wide variety of courses, including research, technical and business writing, composition, creative writing, fiction, poetry and rhetoric. When I teach I do the best I can to instill in students improved writing ability as well as my enthusiasm and love for the craft of written English. One of my goals is to create and support a culture of writing and literature at IUS outside the classroom.

In 2005 I received a Louisville Society of Professional Journalists award for my column Technicalities, an irreverent weekly column on “the bewildering effects of high tech on our lives” which I wrote for Snitch (now defunct), and which was published in Louisville, Lexington, and Paducah, Ky.; San Diego; Columbia, S.C.; and Savannah, Ga. My current column is not so irreverent, it’s a practical column about the Honda Fit, called A More Perfect Fit, on theautochannel.com.

I earned an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Louisville, where I was a student of acclaimed novelist and former Kentucky Poet Laureate Sena Naslund, and poet Jeffrey Skinner. I enjoy writing of all kinds, including research, poetry, fiction, drama, essays, and journalism. In the creative writing field, writers are often advised to stick to one genre. While it’s a practical way to approach writing, I can’t seem to follow that advice, so I don’t give it. Write whatever you want to.

At UofL I also completed the majority of a doctorate in Composition and Rhetoric, and hope to begin work on a dissertation soon (someday?).

In between teaching and writing, I also conduct writers workshops, such as the Writers Workshop Project (WWP), Snug Hollow Writers Workshop and Retreat, and other workshops and seminars, including visits to public schools.

In 2002 my sonnet, “Abandoned Barns,” was a runner up in the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred contest.

For hobbies I go hiking and camping, play guitar and flute, do NY Times crossword puzzles and watch Battlestar Galactica. I’m married to Dana Jackman, and live in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, KY.

That’s all I can think to say about me. If you have any questions about me or my courses, e-mail me through my contacts page.