3.18.2008:
As Hub-Bub's 2007-2008 Artist-in-Residence season comes to a close, join me and my fellow artists Derya Hanife Altan, Arielle Angel, and Nicholas Dowgillo on Tuesday, March 25 at 7 PM in The Showroom (149 S. Daniel Morgan Avenue in Spartanburg) for our Exit Show. All four of us will have visual work on display and I will be reading a lyric essay from my latest chapbook project at 8 p.m. See you then! 3.3.2008:
Hub City Writers Project's latest release, Still Home: The Essential Poetry of Spartanburg, is finished! In this collection I edited during my residency in Spartanburg, the included poets channel the natural beauty of the Carolina landscape and tackle the tragedies and comedies of everyday life.
Please join me at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 20 in The Showroom (149 S. Daniel Morgan Avenue in downtown Spartanburg) as Hub City hosts a book release celebration and reading . Teachers of language arts and creative writing are invited for a special meet-and-great with the poets at 5 p.m. that day. Still Home will sell for $12 and will be available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and here.
You can read the Herald Journal article about Still Home here.
2.24.2008:
The latest issue of Portland Review has finally arrived!
You can purchase a copy, which contains some of my poetry, here.
2.4.2008:
Please join me this Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 1 p.m. in the Showroom (149 S. Daniel Morgan Avenue in Spartanburg) as I host the second annual South Carolina Upstate competition for Poetry Out Loud. This regional event, presented in partnership with the South Carolina Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Foundation, will feature recitation champions from eight area high schools. Competitors will perform classic and contemporary poems of celebrated authors ranging from Robert Lowell, to Elizabeth Bishop, to Langston Hughes, and even Shakespeare. Through , students can master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. You can read the press release here. Come and show your support of this wonderful event!
1.22.2008:
Thanks to everyone who joined me at Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor last week to celebrate the launch of Oleander Review. While in Ann Arbor I had the opportunity to return to the Living Writers Show, not as host this time, but as a guest. To hear me read a new poem, as well as an excerpt from my essay in Oleander, "The Silence of Objects," see the "Interviews" section on the right. Or download a PDF of the essay, available under "Work."
12.13.2007:
Mark your calendars, Michiganders. I'm heading back to Ann Arbor to give a reading at Shaman Drum Bookshop on January 17th , 2008 at 7 p.m. I'll be there along with Elizabeth Kostova and Cyan James to celebrate the launch of Oleander Review. You can read about the event here. I hope to see you there!
11.12.2007:
Warm thanks to everyone who joined me at Hub-Bub for Talk20 this past weekend. Talk20 is is a global event that has been held in cities around the world. In rapid-fire succession, ten people present 20 images each and discuss each image for 20 seconds. Photos of all ten presentations, including mine titled “My Crazy Parents,” are available here. And don't forget to check out my blog, which I keep regularly updated, here.
10.31.2007:
If you missed it in the daily news, the Herald Journal's photos of "We Live Here Now" are now available here.
10.28.2007:
One more article about "We Live Here Now" showed up in this Sunday's Herald Journal. You can read it here.
10.25.2007:
The Spartanburg Herald Journal has published a second article about my performative project "We Live Here Now." Check it out here.
10.23.2007: 
As part of a five-day performative installation titled "We Live Here Now," I will be moving in to the storefront windows of 100 East Main Street in downtown Spartanburg with my fellow artist-in-residence, Arielle Angel, tomorrow morning. More information on this event, including a detailed mission statement, is available on my blog. Or check out today's article in the Spartanburg Herald Journal here. I hope to see you downtown!
9.30.2007: 
Four of my poems have appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review. Order a copy online here.
9.25.2007:
A new audio piece, Over Road, is available in the Other Audio section of the site. Check it out!
8.23.2007:
One of my nonfiction pieces, The Silence of Objects, will appear in inaugural issue of the Oleander Review, which hits bookstores this week! You can also order a copy online here.
Also, be sure to check out my poetry in the online version of Spork Press's final issue.
I am also pleased to announce that on Friday, August 24, I will be joining visiting authors Janis Owens, Kathleen Parker and Ron Rash at Spartanburg High School's Annual Literacy Day. I will be presenting a lecture/discussion on one of their summer reading books, The Secret Life of Bees, at 10:30 A.M. I hope to see you there!
8.05.2007:
I've added a link to my Flickr photo site on the right side of the page. Check it out!
6.25.2007:
On Tuesday June 26th at 7 p.m. I will be at The Showroom (149 S. Daniel Morgan Avenue in Spartanburg) for Hub-Bub's 2007 Artists in Residence Entry Show. My work will be hung in the gallery along with the work of artists Derya Hanife Altan, Arielle Angel and Nicholas Dowgwillo and the poetry reading begins at 8 p.m. Please join us!
6.20.2007:
Today's article in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal about Hub-bub's new artists-in-residence is available online here .
6.14.2007:
My new blog is up and running! Check it out here or click the link on the right. . . and a new portait courtesy of Marshall Walker Lee.
5.18.2007:
The Hub City Writers Project of Spartanburg has named me their writer-in-residence for 2007-2008. Check out the press release here . Find out more about Hub City here .
4.25.2007:
Announcement of the 2007 Hopwood Awards is available here.
4.11.2007:
Tune in to the Living Writers Show today as I interview Jonathan Lethem - novelist, essayist and recent recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" - reads from his latest novel, "You Don't Love Me Yet." We'll listen to Yo La Tengo and discuss autobiography, affectation and the art of writing about art. Check out Jonathan's wesbite here.
The Living Writers Show airs each Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.(EST) on WCBN-FM, 88.3 Ann Arbor. The show can be streamed during show-time at www.wcbn.org and show archives are available as podcasts on iTunes.
4.07.2007:
I am honored to announce that I am the recipient of three awards in this year's Hopwood contest: Undergraduate Nonfiction, Undergraduate Poetry and the Paul and Sonia Handleman Poetry Award, which is presented to the first-place winner in Undergraduate Poetry.
The awards ceremony will be in the Rackham Building at 3:30 PM on Wednesday, April 18. Susan Stamberg, author and special correspondent for NPR, will deliver a lecture. Please join me there!
4.05.2007:
The UM Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC) and SafeHouse Center are holding their 2nd annual art exhibition, rEVOLUTION: Making Art for Change. April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), and the show will provide a safe space for the community to offer artistic commentary on the issues of sexism, gender, sexual violence and empowerment.
I'll be at the opening night of the show on Friday, April 13th at 7 pm at the Duderstadt Gallery on UM North Campus where two of my poems will be projected on the wall space. The opening night will include live performances of poetry and music, as well as refreshments. I hope to see you there!
3.28.2007:
Tune in today at 4:30 PM to WCBN-FM 88.3 as poet and essayist Maggie Nelson reads from her newest work, The Red Parts, a memoir that chronicles Nelson's interest in the death of her aunt, Jane Mixer. Murdered in 1969, Jane Mixer was one of a handful of pioneering female students at the University of Michigan law school. Planning to tell her parents that she had recently become engaged, Jane arranged for a ride home to Muskegon, Michigan through a campus ride-share bulletin board. The next morning her body was found inside the gates of a small cemetery fourteen miles outside of Ann Arbor, shot twice in the head and strangled.
We'll move through Nelson's spare, poetic account of a girlhood haunted by loss, discuss the literary tradition of writing about writing and examine the consequences of the American cultural obsession with murdered women. The interview will be streamed live at www.wcbn.org and can be downloaded as a podcast from the iTunes store.
3.26.2007:
Please join me this Friday evening, March 30, at 7 PM in the Kuenzel room of the Michigan Union for the second of three readings featuring members of this year's creative writing cohort. I will be reading along with fiction writers Marshall Walker Lee and Kirstin Northenscold, and poets Tania Strauss and Sarah Sala. I hope to see you there!
3.23.2007:
Three new interviews have been uploaded to the mp3 section: poets Marie Howe & Catherine Wagner and novelist Ayelet Waldman.
3.19.2007:
Well kids, its official (pending a few minor details . . . like graduating from college). From June 1, 2007 until April 31, 2008, I will be the writer-in-residence at the Hub-Bub Art Center and Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg, SC. I'll be living with three talented visual artists-in-residence in a loft apartment/studio space and spending lots of time making beautiful things. More details to come on what promises to be an exciting eleven months . . .
3.18.2007:
Check out the mp3 section for new interviews with poet Dennis O'Driscoll, author and creator of FOUND magazine Davy Rothbart and poet/essayist Christopher Merrill.
3.14.2007:
Get ready for St. Patrick's Day with beloved Irish poet Dennis O'Driscoll today on the Living Writers Show. We'll get a chance to discuss the state of contemporary European poetics, we'll examine the American fascination with the Irish literary tradition and we'll ponder poetic approaches to the tiny tragedies and comedies of modern life.
The Living Writers Show airs every Wednesday from 4:30-5:15 p.m.(EST) on WCBN-FM, 88.3 Ann Arbor. The broadcast can be streamed during show-time at www.wcbn.org and archives are available as podcasts on iTunes.
3.12.2007:
I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected as one of four finalists for the writer-in-residence position at HUB-BUB's "Live Free and Create" Artist-in-Residence program in Spartanburg, SC! The program is an eleven-month all-expenses-paid residency associated with the HUB-BUB art center and Hub City Writer's Project. Check out the website here and wish me luck!
Also, thank you to everyone who joined me at Richard Siken's events last week; his visit was a definite success!
3.06.2007:
Join me at Shaman Drum Bookshop this Thursday evening at 7 pm as poet Richard Siken reads from his harrowing book of poems, Crush, winner of the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. Get more information about the reading from Shaman Drum's website.
On Friday: Richard Siken will answer questions about the compilation of a manuscript for poetry contests at 11 am in the Hopwood Room. Also, join us at 3 pm in 3222 Angell Hall, when I will introduce Richard Siken prior to his lecture on the state of contemporary American poetry.
Check out Richard's blog here. Read one of my favorite poems of his, Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out, here.
2.28.2007:
My interview with novelist Ayelet Waldman on the Living Writers Show will air today (Wednesday) at 4:30 on WCBN-FM 88.3 Ann Arbor and will stream live at www.wcbn.org. Ayelet will read from her newest work of fiction, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, as well as from her selected essays. We'll talk about the politics of the personal essay, the morality of loving your spouse more than your children, and the joys and complications of raising a family in a writerly home. View her website here.
Get the podcast from the iTunes store by searching for "Living Writers."
2.20.2007:
Hey everyone - welcome to my brand new website! Here, you'll be able to find updates about everything going on in my writing life. Feel free to peruse my work samples, vitae and links. Enjoy!