— CURRICULUM VITAE —

The University of Southern Mississippi (Center for Writers)

• Ph.D., English, August 2009

• Fields of Study: Creative Writing (Poetry) and Literature

• Exam Areas: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Modern & Postmodern American and British Literature, Poetry & Poetics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

• Creative Dissertation: Night Field Anecdote: Poems.

Sam Houston State University

• M.A., English, May 2004

• Fields of Study: Creative Writing (Poetry) and Literature

• Creative Thesis: Dark Orchard and Other Poems.

The University of South Carolina, Aiken

• B.A., English, May 2002

• Fields of Study: English

• Senior Thesis: Cured by Twilight: Poems.

Oxford College of Emory University, GA

• Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing, 2017-August 2020

Emory University, GA

• Lecturer of Poetry, 2017-2018; Spring 2019

Reinhardt University, GA

• Core Creative Writing Faculty, Etowah Valley MFA Program, Summer 2016-Present

University of Tennessee--Knoxville, TN

• Writer in Residence (Poetry), Spring 2016

University of Southern Mississippi

• Online Composition Instructor, Summer 2009-2013

• Center for Writers, Excellence Teaching Fellow, Fall 2006-Summer 2009

• Writing Tutor, Fall 2006-Spring 2007

• Research Assistant, Fall 2006

Lone Star College–Montgomery, TX (formerly Montgomery College)

• Master Tutor (Including ESL tutoring), 2004-2006

Sam Houston State University, TX

• Adjunct Instructor, 2004-2005

• Teaching Assistant, 2002-2004

University of South Carolina, Aiken

• Consultant, Writing Center 2000-2002

• Contributing Editor, Shenandoah, 2014-2018

• Writing E-structor, Smarthinking, Inc. Summer 2009-2011

• Founding Editor, Town Creek Poetry, 2007-Present

• Assistant Editor, Mississippi Review, 2006

• Poetry and Prose Faculty Advisor, Swirl Magazine, Montgomery College, 2005-2006

• Editor, The Sam Houston State Review: 2003-2004

• Assistant Editor, Studies in American Culture XXIV: 2, Fall 2001

Oxford College of Emory University

• ENGCW 271, Introduction to Poetry Writing, Fall 2017; Spring 2018; Spring 2019

• ENGCW 270, Introduction to Creative Writing, Fall 2017; Spring 2018; Fall 2019

• ENG 384, Literary Criticism, Spring 2018

• ENGCW 205, Poetry (Literature Seminar), Fall 2018; Spring 2019

• English 399W, Independent Study, (Spring 2018 – 3 sections); Fall 2019 (ORS) “Gerard Manley Hopkins’s Influence on Modernist Poetry”

Emory University

• ENGCW 374, Advanced Poetry, Spring 2019

• ENGCW 271: Introduction to Poetry Writing, Fall 2017, Spring 2018

Reinhardt University, Etowah MFA Program

• English 580, Creative Writing III: Fiction and Poetry, Spring 2018; Spring 2020

• English 686, Advanced Graduate Poetry Seminar, Spring 2016

• English 570, Creative Writing II: Poetry, Spring 2017; Fall 2020

• English 560, Creative Writing I: Poetry, Fall 2016

• English 525, Reading Image (focus on poetry, fiction, and nonfiction), Fall 2016

• English 497, Advanced Creative Writing (Multi-genre), Summer 2016

The University of Tennessee--Knoxville

• English 686, Advanced Graduate Poetry Seminar, Spring 2016

The University of Southern Mississippi

• English 102, Composition II, 2009-2013 (Several online sections)

• English 101, Composition I, Fall 2008 (Two Sections)

• English 333, Technical Writing, Spring 2008 (Online)

• English 102, Composition II, Spring 2008 (Online)

• English 101, Composition I, Fall 2007 (Online – Two Sections)

Sam Houston State University

• Director, Sophomore Honors English Study: “James Dickey’s Early Poetry,” Spring 2005

• English 266-W, Readings in Contemporary American Fiction and Poetry, Spring 2005

• English 165, Composition and Literature II, Spring 2005,

• English 164, Composition I, Fall 2004 (3 sections), Spring 2005 (2 sections)

• English 266-O, Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Fall 2004

• English 031-D, Developmental English, Fall 2003

POETRY

Full-length books

• Grass Chapels: New & Selected Poems. Mercer University Press. 184 pp. 2021

• Tree Heresies. Mercer University Press. 77 pp. 2015. (Winner of the 2016 Georgia Author of the Year Award)

• Night Field Anecdote. Louisiana Literature Press. 70 pp. 2011.

• Bledsoe. Texas Review Press. 80 pp. 2011.

• Dark Orchard. Texas Review Press. 56 pp. (Winner the 2005 Breakthrough Poetry Prize)

Collaborative full-length

• Specter Mountain. Mercer University Press. 64 pp. (with Jesse Graves), 2018.

• Creeks of the Upper South. Jacar Press and Unicorn Press (jointly published) 64 pp. (with Amy Wright), 2016.

Chapbooks

• April Creatures. Blue Horse Press, 2015.

• Xylem & Heartwood. Finishing Line Press, 2013.

• Sleep Paralysis. Stepping Stone Press, 2012. (Winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook Prize, judged by Kwame Dawes)

• The Ghost Narratives. Finishing Line Press, 2008.

Journal / Anthology Publications (selected from approximately 200 publications)

• “Persistent Trillium.” A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia. (2019) Eds. Rose McLarney and Laura-Gray Street. Athens: U of Georgia P, 46. (print).

• “Early Spring, 1988.” Southern Humanities Review 52.2 (2019): 60. (print).

• “The Child.” Birmingham Poetry Review 46 (2019): 253. (print).

• “Boyhood Caught Between Water and Blood.” Terrain.org (grand prize winner of the 7th annual poetry contest) (online)

• “Anodyne.” Prairie Schooner 91.1 (2017): 84-87. (print).

• “Nocturne for Cottonmouth and Blood.” Prairie Schooner 91.1 (2017): 87-88. (print).

• “Understory.” Kenyon Review May/June 2016: 40-41. (print).

• “Upbringing.” Oxford American Fall 2015, special music issue. (print).

• “Wild Pasture.” Terrain.org (online).

• “Bees.” Five Points: A Journal of Literature & Art 16.2 (2015): 100. (print).

• “Confession.” Greensboro Review 2014. (print).

• “Triptych on the Days before Her Passage.” Crab Orchard Review 19.1 (2014): 183-185. (print).

• “Boyhood Trapped Behind the Eyelids.” Asheville Poetry Review 20, 1.23 (2013): 11-12 (print).

• “Chernobyl Eclogue.” The Ecopoetry Anthology. Eds. Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street. Trinity University Press, 2013: 314. (print).

• “Nora.” Shenandoah (online).

• “First Day of October.” Shenandoah (online).

• “Barn Gothic.” Shenandoah (online).

• “Aubade for Yellow Jacket.” Tar River Poetry (Winner of the Porter Fleming Prize for Poetry)

• “Prologue.” Snake Nation Review 25 (2013): 53-57. (Winner of the Porter Fleming Prize for Poetry)

• “A Path Through Walnut Trees After Rain.” Southern Poetry Review 50.2 (2012): 69.

• “A Study of Descent.” Southern Poetry Review 50.2 (2012): 69. (print).

• “Flowers in a Northern Field.” Atlanta Review 18.2 (2012): 9 (print).

• “Fossil Creek.” Louisiana Literature 29.2 (2012) 129-130. (print).

• “The Farmer Who Loved Winter.” Connecticut Review 34.2 (2012): 172. (print).

• “Blond Mare, Iredell County, N.C., 1870-1896.” Birmingham Poetry Review 39 (2011): 126. (print).

• “Prayer to Worms.” Birmingham Poetry Review 39 (2011): 127. (print).

• “Teleology: Recurring Dream.” Connecticut Review 34.1 (2012): 127. (print).

• “Loggerhead Shrike.” Southern Poetry Review 48.2 (2011): 54. (print).

• “Sweet Gums near Pond at Night.” Southern Poetry Review 48.2 (2011): 53. (print).

• “Nightmares for the Seasons.” Poetry South 10 (2010): 47 (print).

• “White Fox and Sleep Paralysis.” Epoch 59.3 (2010): 74. (print).

• “Winter Oaks.” The Midwest Quarterly 59.1 (2010): 377. (print).

• “Rabid Cat.” Tar River Poetry 49.2 (2010): 38. (print).

• “Nocturne for the Second Death.” Smartish Pace 16 (2009): 42. (print).

• “Burning House.” Smartish Pace 16 (2009): 43.09. (print).

• “Chernobyl Eclogue.” AGNI 69 (2009): 191. (print).

• “The Escape.” New South 1.2 (2008): 55. (print).

• “Ferns.” Southern Poetry Review 46.1 (2008): 54. (print).

• “Hell.” Indiana Review 30.1 (2008): 79. (print).

• “Prescribed Fire.” New Orleans Review Summer 2007. (print).

• “Trumpet Creeper Variations.” North American Review Nov./Dec. 2006. (print).

EDITED PUBLICATIONS

As Co-editor

• Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry. University of South Carolina Press, 2016. (co-edited with Daniel Cross Turner)

• The World Is Charged: Poetic Engagements with Gerard Manley Hopkins. Clemson University, Press and Liverpool University Press, 2016 (co-edited with Daniel Westover)

As Series Editor and Volume Co-editor

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VIII: Texas. Texas Review Press, 2018.

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina. Texas Review Press, 2014.

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VI: Tennessee. Texas Review Press, 2013. (Co-edited with Jesse Graves & Paul Ruffin).

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume V: Georgia. Texas Review Press, 2012. (Co-edited with Paul Ruffin)

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume IV: Louisiana. Texas Review Press, 2011. (Co-edited with Paul Ruffin)

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume III: Contemporary Appalachia. Texas Review Press, 2010. (co-edited with Jesse Graves & Paul Ruffin)

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume II: Mississippi. Texas Review Press, 2010. (co-edited with Stephen Gardner) 226 pp.

• The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume I: South Carolina. Texas Review Press, 2007. (co-edited with Stephen Gardner) 282 pp.

As Editor

• Broken Hallelujah: The New and Selected Poems of Jack Butler. Texas Review Press, 2015.

• Why He Doesn’t Sleep: The Selected Poems of Stephen Gardner. Texas Review Press, 2013.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

• “The Beauty of Sculpted Dispossession.” Asheville Poetry Review, 2016.

• “An Addiction to Sound.” Shenandoah, 2014.

• “Books and Beasts: The Story of Bobby, a Modern Autodidact.” 2 Paragraphs http://2paragraphs.com/2014/04/books-and-beasts-the-story-of-bobby-a-modernautodidact/ April 17, 2014

• “Beyond Geography: Why I’m a Southern Poet.” Rattle, 2014.

PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH

• “Virtual Darkness, Tangible Light: Crafting Expressionism Through Algorithmic Poesis.” in Routledge Companion to Literary Media. Ed. Bronwen Thomas. (With Martin Sheehan, Forthcoming, Chapter under contract, to be published by Routledge.)

• “Ecological Conscience in Hopkins’s ‘God’s Grandeur’.” Academic Exchange Quarterly (2003): 488-502.

• “Hardy and Owen on World War I: ‘The Man He Killed’ and ‘Dulce et Decorum Est'.” The Oswald Review: A National Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English IV (2002): 93-107.

• “Seeing a World in Motion: The Tropistic Force of Theodore Roethke and Six Poems in the Greenhouse Sequence.” Social Sciences and Humanities Journal XXII.1 (2001): 48-54.

MANUSCRIPTS / PROJECTS IN PLANNING STAGES

• Volumes IX through XVI of The Southern Poetry Anthology

• Winner, 2019 Appalachian Book of the Year Award (Appalachian Writers Association) for Specter Mountain (with Jesse Graves)

• Winner, 2016 Terrain.org Prize in Poetry (judged by Eamon Grennan)

• Winner, Georgia Author of the Year, 2016

• Nominee, AWP George Garrett Award for Community Service to Literature (four nominations)

• Pushcart Nominee, from Board of Directors within the Pushcart Organization, 2016.

• Winning Editor, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume V: Georgia, considered by the Georgia Center for the Book as “A Book all Georgians Should Read.” 2015.

• Nominee, Best of the Net, “Elegy with Dissonance between Earth and the Self” Blue Mountain Review 2016

• Best of the Net Nomination for “Grief Map,” storySouth 2015

• Pushcart Prize Nomination for “Furnace and Fox,” Terrain.org 2014

• Pushcart Prize Nomination for “Edgefield Creek,” Flycatcher: A Journal of Native Imagination. 2013.

• Winner, 2012 Ron Rash Award in Poetry for “Nightmare, Revised.” (Judged blind)

• Winner, 2012 Ron Rash Award in Poetry: Finalist for “Nocturne for Cicada.” (Judged blind)

• Winner, 2011 Porter Fleming Literary Award for “Prologue” and “Aubade for Yellowjacket” ($1,500 prize).

• Finalist for the Crab Orchard Series Open Competition Award in Poetry for Night Field Anecdote, 2011 (Ten finalists out of five hundred manuscript submissions)

• Winner, South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook Contest (USC Press / Stepping Stones Press), 2010

• Professional Growth Fellowship, The University of Southern Mississippi, Spring 2008

• Professional Growth Fellowship, The University of Southern Mississippi, Fall 2007

• Howard and Helen Bahr Graduate Essay Award, University of Southern Mississippi, 2006-2007

• Professional Growth Fellowship, The University of Southern Mississippi, Spring 2007

• Bahr Research Award, The University of Southern Mississippi, 2007

• Research Travel Grant, The University of Virginia, 2007

• USM Center for Writers Excellence in Teaching Fellowship, 2006-2009

• Best New Poets of 2006 Nominee, The University Press of Virginia

• Texas Review Breakthrough Poetry Prize for Dark Orchard, a first collection

• Creative Writing Award, Sam Houston State University Graduate Colloquium, 2003-2004

• Recipient of the John W. Thomason Scholarship in Writing for the 2003-2004 Year (SHSU)

• Creative Writing Award, Sam Houston State University Graduate Colloquium, 2002-2003

• Two SHSU Outstanding Writer Awards for “The Keats-Tennyson Paradox: Victorian Medievalism and Ekphrasis in ‘The Lady of Shalott’” and Six Poems, the SHSU Graduate Colloquium Winner for 2002-2003

• CRLA Master Tutor Certification (highest obtainable), 2003

• Broken Ink Literary Contest Winner, 2002

• Oswald Creative Writing Award, 2002

• USCA Student Employee of the Year, (Nominated by USCA faculty for work in the Writing Center), 2002

• Essay Portfolio Exemplary Performance Award, 2001

• Broken Ink Millennium Literary Award, 1999

• Creative Writing Excellence Award, USC Columbia, 1999

• Writer-in-Residence Lecture, Lincoln Memorial University, Summer 2018

• Commissioned Feature Writer Visit, Lincoln Memorial University, October 2017

• Commissioned Lecture and Reading, Middle Georgia State University, April 2017.

• Commissioned Lecture on the Lyric Poem and Imagination, Reinhardt University, April 2017.

• Commissioned Lecture and Reading, Belhaven University, March 2017.

• Commissioned Lecture on James Dickey, Reinhardt University, July 2016.

• Elizabeth Cartwright Coker Visiting Lecturer in Poetry, Converse College, September 22, 2015.

• Commissioned Lecture and Reading, Washington and Lee University, November 2, 2015.

• Commissioned Workshop and Lecture on Contemporary Poetry, Georgia Writers Association, April 18, 2015.

• Commissioned Lecture on Writing Poetry, Furman University, March 30, 2015.

• Commissioned Lecture on Editorial Philosophy, Kennesaw State University, March 26, 2015.

• Commissioned Master Class and Tutorials with Graduate Students, Eastern Washington University, February 6, 2015.

• Commissioned Master Class on Poetry, East Tennessee State University, April 3, 2014.

• Commissioned Master Class on Poetry, Lincoln Memorial University, 2014 Mountain Heritage Literary Festival.

• “Roethke and His Legacy”: A Poetry Workshop and Seminar Hybrid (Leader) – March 15 to April 29, 2014. (Atlanta, GA -- Community Workshop)

• “The Art of Submission: Publishing for Beginners”: A Poetry Workshop (Leader) – October 7 to December 8, 2013. (Atlanta, GA -- Community Workshop)

• Commissioned Master Class on Poetry, Millsaps College, November 18, 2013.

• Commissioned Reading and Workshop, Georgia Regents University, October 22, 2013.

• Commissioned Master Class on Poetry, The University of West Georgia, September 16, 2013.

• Invited Guest Poetry Workshop Leader, East Tennessee State University, October 2013.

• Invited Guest Lecturer: American Poetry, East Tennessee State University, October 2013.

• Writers’ Circle Commissioned Lecturer – “Sound Textures in Contemporary Poetry.” –Hayesville, NC–August 10, 2013.

• “Spring Cleaning”: A Poetry Workshop (Leader) – March to April 2013, 10 members

• “Prompts for Poetry”: A Poetry Workshop (Leader) – February to March 2013, 8 members

• Community Poetry Workshop Leader – Atlanta, Fall 2012, 12 members.

• Writers’ Circle Featured Lecturer / Workshop Leader – Hayesville, NC – October 13, 2012

• Hybrid James Wright Seminar/Poetry Workshop Leader – Atlanta – July through September, 2012.

• Hybrid James Dickey Seminar/Poetry Workshop Leader, January through April, 2012)

• Atlanta Area Poetry Workshop Leader – monthly, ongoing workshops designed for interested poets in Atlanta and surrounding communities (usually 5 to 7 participants per workshop), Summer through Fall of 2011.

• Poetry Workshop Leader (two workshops) / Presenter / Reader, The 1st Annual Turner Cassity Literary Festival, July 8-10, 2011.

• Featured Presenter, “The Mountain Speaks for Itself: Poetry from Our Natural World,” The Southern Festival of Books. Nashville, TN, October 2018.

• Panel Mediator, “The Southern Poetry Anthology.” SAMLA. November, 2013.

• Panel Mediator, “Introducing The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VI: Tennessee,” October, 2013. The Southern Festival of Books. Nashville, TN.

• Featured Faculty, Turner Cassity Literary Festival, Douglas County, GA (July 8-10, 2011)

• Guest Lecturer, Furman University, “Poetry from the Inside,” November 23, 2010

• Guest Workshop Leader, Furman University, Advanced Poetry Workshop, November 23, 2010

• Keynote Speaker for the South Carolina Book Festival, 2010: “Tribute to Stephen Gardner.”

• Featured Poet for The Magnolia Quarterly. Gulf Coast Writers Association. Spring 2010

• Presenter, “The Will to Art: Nietzschean Undercurrents in ‘Sailing to Byzantium.’” The University of Southern Mississippi Graduate Research Symposium. April 11, 2008.

• Presenter, “‘This Most Unnatural Strife’: Wordsworth and the Natures of Maturation.” Remapping Intellectual Spaces. Intermountain Graduate Studies Conference. Utah State University. April 4, 2008.

• Presenter, “‘A Silence is Living’: Georg Trakl's Quiet Apocalypse and the Barthesian Ideal.” Visions of Sound: The Aural in German Literature and History. Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia. February 2008.

• Presenter, “Georg Trakl’s Schweigen: ‘Silence’ as Key to the Narrative Structure.” German Poetry. M/MLA Cleveland, Ohio. November 8-11, 2007.

• Guest Lecturer, special invitation to speak in an undergraduate poetry creative writing workshop at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. October 2007.

• Presenter, “Southern Instress: Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Poetic Inheritance of James Dickey.” Southern Writers, Southern Writing. University of Mississippi. July 2007.

• Presenter, “Georg Trakl’s Natural Eschatology: Silence as Prophet in the Robert Bly/ James Wright Translation.” Prophetic Discourse from Amos to Zarathustra: On the Uses and Misuses of Prophecy. Dept of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia. February 2007.

• Presenter, “Tutoring Poetics.” Lecture for the Writing Tutors of Montgomery College. June, 2006.

• Presenter, “Ways to Approach and Write About Poetry.” ELC S.M.A.R.T. Seminar Series. Montgomery College. April 5, 2006.

• Presenter, “Developing the Editor’s Critical Apparatus and an Open Mind: Publication Standards and Practices of Small University Literary Magazines.”

• Commissioned Lecture for Swirl Magazine’s Staff at Montgomery College, Conroe, TX. February, 2006.

• Presenter, “Essay Exam Strategies,” with Scott Peavy. Sam Houston State University Writing Center Training Session, Spring 2003.

• Presenter, “Professional Growth through the Writing Center Journal,” with Melissa Maypole. International Writing Centers Association. Savannah College of Art and Design. Fall 2001.

• Selected for the South Carolina Governor’s School in Creative Arts (Specialization: Writing; Main Instructors: Fiction—George Singleton; Poetry—Susan Ludvigson) Summer 1996.

Oxford College of Emory University

• Faculty Advisor, Phi Gamma Literary Society, 2017-August 2020.

• Faculty Advisor, the Oxford College Poetry Club, 2017-August 2020.

• Faculty Advisor, The Phoenix, Oxford College of Emory University’s Student Literary Magazine, 2017-August 2020.

The University of Southern Mississippi

• “Caffeine and Sugar Night.” Volunteer Tutoring for ENG 203 (World Literature) Students, USM Writing Center. Fall 2006 and Spring 2007

Other Service to the Profession

• Judge for the Adrienne Bond Award, Mercer University Press, 2016.

• Judge for the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, 2015.

• Preliminary Judge for the North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2013.

• Final Judge for the Echoes & Images poetry contest, Northeast State Community College Blountville, TN, 2013.

• Final Judge for the Echoes & Images poetry contest, Northeast State Community College Blountville, TN, 2012.

• Modern Language Association

• Directory of Poets and Fiction Writers

• The Academy of American Poets Poetry Society of America

• Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)

• International English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta

Literary Genres / Interests

• American Poetry and Fiction (modern and contemporary)

• Literature of the American South

• Post-apocalyptic and Postlapsarian Media (particularly literature)

• Digital Humanities (Videogame Theory and Literary Bots)

• Poesis inspired by Theoretical Physics, Cosmology, Horology, Botany, the Visual Arts

• Musical Ekphrasis, Music of the Baroque Era, Bach

Critical Theory

• Ecocriticism/Environmental Studies

• Disability Studies and Literature (particularly Sleep-centered Disabilities)

• Poesis and Poetic Forms

• Theory and Philosophy of Imagination

• Synesthesia

Composition, Editing, and Publishing

• Methods of composition for various genres, including essays, poetry, prose (fiction and nonfiction)