CV                                             

Education 

Columbia University - New York, NY
MFA Creative Writing Dean’s Fellow    August 2003
Concentration: Nonfiction
Thesis: Proximity, a Memoir
Thesis Advisor: Honor Moore
Thesis Workshop Instructor: Richard Locke
Courses: Nonfiction Workshops, Poetry Workshop; Nonfiction, Fiction, and Poetry Seminars and Lectures including Autobiography and the Autobiographical Novel, 20th Century Literary Nonfiction, 20th Century Literary Fiction, Postmodern Fiction, and Poets on Poets

Davidson College - Davidson, NC     
1-year study abroad in Florence and London                                                                
BA English 3.6                      May 2000
English Courses: Literary Analysis, British Literature through 18th Century; British Literature, 19th through 20th Century including colonial and postcolonial literature; American Literature through 20th Century, Introduction to Creative Writing, Advanced Poetry Workshop, and various electives.

Employment

Rutgers University,  Lecturer, Expository Writing and Scientific and Technical Writing
New Brunswick, NJ                     Sept. ’11 – present
• Teach two sections of Freshman Expository Writing, which uses nonfiction texts dealing with contemporary world issues such as democracy, technology, religion, the environment, gender, art, economics, and culture to teach students to think and write critically, connectively, and originally.    
• Teach Scientific and Technical Writing, which offers students practice in the forms and discourses of scientific and technical writing as they develop, research, and revise an independent project.

Between the Lines, Founder, Director, Instructor
Brooklyn, NY                     Jan. ’10 – present
• Direct this company offering writing, editing, teaching, and tutoring services. Services include humanities tutoring, manuscript consultations, admissions essay and artist statement tutorials, content/copy writing, substantive editing, proofreading, copyediting, curricula writing, dissertation editing, and second language editing.
• Design and teach Between the Lines writing workshops for adults and teenagers including an advanced multi-genre workshop for adults, an introductory fiction workshop for adults, Sleeping on the Wing (a multi-genre writing workshop for teens), a college application essay workshop, and Projections: A Creative Writing and Photography Workshop. 

Achievement First, English Language Arts Curricula Writer/Assessment Editor
Brooklyn, NY                     Jan. ’11 - present
• Create ELA classroom support materials and review standardized ELA assessments for this network of charter schools in New York and Connecticut committed to providing low-income and minority children with access to high-quality education.

The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, Nonfiction and Fiction Writing Workshop Instructor
Brooklyn, NY                     Feb. ’10 – Mar. ’11
• Led three 2-month nonfiction workshops and one fiction workshop for 5-8 adult writers, each of whom received a written critique, individual conference, and workshop of two 25-page submissions; as well as feedback on their critiques of other workshop members.
• Teach/critique literary journalism, personal essays, lyric essays, experimental essays, memoir, the novel, short stories, and flash fiction. 

Center for Talent Development, Honors Creative Writing Instructor
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL                  June ’10 – Aug. ’10
• Develop curriculum for and teach a semester’s worth of multi-genre creative writing instruction to rising high school seniors, juniors, and sophomores in the Equinox program during a compacted 3-week session. 
• Develop curriculum for and teach a semester’s worth of multi-genre creative writing instruction to rising eighth and ninth graders in the Spectrum program during a compacted 3-week session. 
• Employ the workshop model along with inquiry-based, hands-on innovative instruction in poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction.

Manuscript Consultant/Editor                            Mar. ’10 - present
• Offer editorial advice for book-length fiction and narrative nonfiction manuscripts and shorter works, including MFA application portfolios.
• Assess and edit a wide range of writing styles, from simple line editing for style and consistency to “heavy lifting” for rewriting and structural changes.
• Advise clients about how to market their book, including how to choose and query agents.

Projections: A Creative Writing and Photography Workshop, Writing Instructor
New York, NY                   Summer ’11
• Designed this 8-week writing and urban landscape photography workshop centered around New York poems and landmarks, co-taught with photographer Amy Williams.
• Guide students in analyzing and emulating poems by Walt Whitman, Wislawa Szymborska, Hettie Jones, C.K. Williams, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Derek Walcott, and Audre Lorde.
• Guide students in composing, workshopping, and revising three poems or short prose pieces about Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Staten Island Ferry.
• Guide students in studying historic and contemporary photographs by Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, WeeGee, Arthur Leipzig, Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Steichen, Berenice Abbott, Andre Kertesz, Diane Cook, Len Jenshal, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans, among others.  
• Facilitate students’ evaluation of the intersection of their identity, voice, and internal landscape with the identity, voice, and physical landscape of the city.

College and Graduate School Admissions Tutor  
National                   Dec. ’07 - present
• Assist MFA writing program applicants in culling and editing pieces for their writing portfolio.
• Guide applicants in analyzing college admissions questions and brainstorming responses that reflect their unique background, strengths, and voice.
• Guide applicants through the revision process, helping them to refine content, structure, style, and grammar to produce vibrant, topical, engaging responses tailored to particular schools.
• Work with clients applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Rice, Notre Dame, Oberlin, Trinity, the Yale School of Drama, and the University of Texas, among other schools.

Writing and Humanities Tutor   
New York, NY; Athens, GA; Edinburg, TX   Oct. ’02 – Present
• Tutor college, high school, middle school, and elementary students.
• New York students include a Columbia University senior (help with a political science thesis), a New York Friends Seminary 9th grader (English Literature and Composition), a Horace Mann 6th grader (English, history, science, and study skills), and New York City public school 3rd graders (reading).

Proofreader/Copy Editor
 New York, NY        Jan. ’05 - Present
• Proofread advertising media for Boombox, Inc.
• Proofread and copyedit introduction, critical essays, and artist biographies in the Point Suite Art Book (http://www.pointsuiteartbook.com/).
• Proofread and copyedit press releases, artist statements, and grant award applications for the 13 artist members of the 440 Gallery, installation artist Matthew McCaslin, The Work Office, curator Julia Kim, and painter Essye Klempner.

Kaplan K-12 Learning Services, Curricula Writer
1 Liberty Plaza, New York, NY      Jan. ’06 - Dec. ’07
• Wrote 12th Grade British, Colonial, and Post-colonial Literature and Composition and 9th Grade Literature and Composition for Pittsburgh Public Schools; portions of 11th Grade World Literature and Composition for Chicago Public Schools; 8th and 9th Grade Literature and Composition for Lynwood, California Public Schools; and portions of 7th and 8th Grade English Language Arts for Clayton County, Georgia Public Schools.
• Mapped a thematic narrative with suggested pacing for the year in which each unit built upon previous themes, texts, knowledge, and skills; all of which addressed a broader course theme and guiding questions.
• Conferred with editors and colleagues to integrate instruction across different subjects and grade levels.
• Wrote the following for each Unit: a Unit Overview; step-by-step instructions for leading students through an end-of-the-unit project or assignment including handouts and scoring rubrics; Content and Performance Expectations aligned to state learning standards and the state testing program; a list of core text, Internet, and multimedia resources; a sequence of recommended instructional approaches to introduce and teach  the key concepts within each  unit; two lesson plans provided as models of proficient and effective instruction, with accompanying samples of student work and commentary explaining why this work can be considered proficient; and instructional adaptations for Special Needs and Advanced students.
• Wrote inquiry-based instruction for the following texts, among others: Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal, Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart, A Small Place, Middle Passage, The Odyssey, The Metamorphosis, Night, Romeo and Juliet, The House on Mango Street, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
• Composed instruction for the following modes of creative writing: short stories, poems, satires, screenwriting, fables, raps, playwriting, and linked vignettes.
• Wrote instruction for the following college writing patterns: Narration, Description, Exemplification, Process, Cause and Effect, Comparison and Contrast, Classification and Division, Definition, and Argumentation.
• Used pop culture, current events, performance, creative writing, and technology to bring literature to life for urban students. Assessments included scripting a tabloid talk show starring the Canterbury pilgrims; exploring the cultural and poetic connections between rap and the Anglo-Saxon oral tradition, then composing and performing rap-adaptations of Beowulf; creating modern film adaptations of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays; writing and illustrating a personal Odyssey in comic book mode; and creating a MySpace profile for the character of Mister Kurtz in Heart of Darkness.

Globe Institute of Technology, Professor of Literature and Composition
New York, NY             Jan. ’06 - May ’06
• Taught a 200-level Literature and Composition course for adult ESL students.
• Instructed students in reading comprehension, literary analysis, public speaking, memoir, narrative writing, vocabulary, and grammar.

Athens Academy, 7th Grade English and Upper School Creative Writing Teacher
Athens, GA            Aug. ’03 - June ’04
• Taught 7th Grade English. Units of study included Post-Civil War Literature and Reform Movements, Modern American Poetry, Oral History, Romeo and Juliet, Holocaust Literature, and Literature Circles, among others.
• Incorporated Word, Power Point, Front Page, Outlook, Micrograde, and the Internet in instruction at this laptop-based school.
• Used pop culture, current events, performance, creative writing, and technology to engage students in inquiry-based learning.
• Employed the writing workshop process popularized by Nancie Atwell (prewriting, peer conference, revision, teacher conference, editing, publishing, portfolio) for all writing assignments.
• Published a 7th Grade Writing Anthology including student emulations of William Carlos Williams’ poems, Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California,” Walt Whitman’s “A Song of Myself,” and oral history monologues.
• Led a weekly fiction and poetry workshop for Upper School students.
• Led an after school book club for seventh graders.

Creative Alternatives of New York, Playwriting and Theatre Instructor
Bronx, NY            Sept. ’02 - May ’03
• Guided “at risk” students at this reform high school in writing and performing a play.

Bank Street Writing Workshops, Writing and Literature Instructor
New York, NY            Oct. ’00 - May ’02
• Designed and taught a college preparatory literature and writing course to public high school students.
• Advised seniors about the college admissions process and workshopped their college essays.  
• Taught fiction, poetry, nonfiction, playwriting, and grammar to 5th graders.

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Awards

• Ucross Foundation, Residency Fellowship (2010)
• Constance Saltonstall Foundation Foundation for the Arts, Residency Fellowship (2010)
• I-Park Foundation, Inc. Fellowship (2010)
• The MacDowell Colony, Residency Fellowship (2008)
• The Edward F. Albee Foundation, Residency Fellowship (2008)
• Jentel Artist Residency Program, Residency Fellowship (2008)
• Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship (2008)
• Byrdcliffe Artist-in-Residence Program, Residency Fellowship (2008)
• Artcroft Foundation, Residency Fellowship (2008)
• Summer Literary Seminars, Merit-based writing scholarship (2008)
• The Prague Summer Program , Merit-based writing scholarship (2008)
• Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Foundation Scholarship Finalist (2008)
• VCCA-France Fiction Workshop, Merit-based writing scholarship (judged by Stephen O’Connor and Helen Benedict) (2007)
• The Vermont Studio Center, Writer’s Residency Grant (2004)
• New Millennium Writing Award Finalist (2003)
• Writers at Work Fellowship Finalist (2003)
• So To Speak Fiction Contest Finalist (2003)
• New Millennium Writing Award Finalist (2002)
• The Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, Merit-based Fiction Scholarship (2001)
• Columbia University Graduate Writing Division Dean’s Fellow (2001)
• Charles Lloyd Award for Nonfiction (2000)

Publications

• “Sanctuary,” an excerpt an early version of my memoir, appeared in The Hudson Review (2005).
• “Origins” and “The Seed,” two personal essays, appeared in the anthology Lost and Found: Stories from New York (2009).

Works in Progress

• Between That Body and This One: a Memoir, completed manuscript. Represented by Philippa Brophy, President of  Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.
• Borderlands: a Novel
• Interview with artist and subterranean explore Julia Solis forthcoming in BOMB Magazine
• Review of Madeleine is Sleeping forthcoming in The Lit Pub

Other Literary Endeavors

     440 Gallery Reading and Artist Talk Series, Founder, Curator & Host  
     Brooklyn, NY       Mar. ’06 – April ’11
• Coordinate, publicize, and host monthly readings and talks centered around the shows of 13 artists. Prose readers include Honor Moore, Christine Schutt, Darin Strauss, Stephen O’Connor, Terese Svoboda, Helen Benedict, Dawn Raffel, Karen Russell, Porochista Khakpour, Scott Snyder, Bryan Charles, Rachel Sherman, Josh Harmon, Peter Selgin, and Douglas Light. Poet readers include Catherine Barnett, Susan Settlemyre-Williams, Lynne Potts, Sarah Gambito, Patrick Rosal, Roger Bonair-Agard, Carla Drysdale, Kate Greenstreet, Bruce MacKinnon, Matthew Thorburn, and Meghan Punschke.

     Old Made Reading and Artist Talk, Curator & Host  
     Brooklyn, NY       Nov. ’09
• Coordinate, publicize, and host a prose and poetry reading in conjunction with Duets: Compositions, a show of paintings by Joseph Ellis and Essye Klempner, to publicize Old Made, a recently opened vintage clothing and accessories boutique. 

     Penguin Putnam, Inc., Intern  
     New York, NY       Feb. ’02 – May ’02
• Performed the duties of an editorial assistant, including reading and evaluating manuscripts, writing summary reports, proofreading, copyediting, and clerical work.

     Lungfull! Magazine, Intern  
     New York, NY       Dec. ’00 – June ’01
• Evaluated and edited submissions, coordinated publicity, implemented Quark layout design, and  managed subscriptions, distribution, and finances for this poetry and art magazine.