Biography

This year I will complete 35 years of college teaching.  My awards include a statewide Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award from SCHEV, the James A. Davis Faculty Award from the E&H Alumni Association, the William C. Finch Faculty Excellence Award, and the William and Martha Defriece Award.  I’ve participated in two NEH Summer Seminars and two NEH Institutes and have received two ACA Sabbatical Fellowships to complete book projects: Understanding Fred Chappell (U of South Carolina Press, 2000) and Six Poets from the Mountain South (LSU Press, 2010).  I’ve also published Appalachia and Beyond: Conversations with Writers from the Mountain South (U of Tennessee Press, 2006), a book of interviews I edited.  Since 1986 I’ve coordinated Emory & Henry’s annual literary festival and since 1990 have edited the college’s Iron Mountain Review, which publishes the proceedings of those festivals.  During my tenure at E&H, I’ve taught all our American literature courses, Great Books, composition courses, and an Ethical Inquiry course on racism.  In addition to the books mentioned above, I’ve published two dozen articles in books and in scholarly journals.
   
Research: A critical study of six Appalachian poets published in April 2010; a book on Fred Chappell; numerous essays on Chappell, Robert Morgan, and other southern and Appalachian writers

Student Research: Honors Theses conducted with Joanna Harader, Jessica Guerra, and Hannah Russell

Upcoming Research: an essay on Appalachian poetry in the 21st century for a book to be published by Oxford University Press; an essay on Margaret Gibson’s poetry