A native of North Carolina, I currently live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where I teach at the University of Alabama and take graduate classes of my own as a candidate in the MFA program. I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, and taught three years of high school English there after graduating from Elon University.
I began writing as an undergraduate student under the guidance of Kevin Boyle, Jeff Stein, and Paul Crenshaw at Elon. After teaching for three years at my alma mater, Middle Creek High School, I decided to pursue graduate studies in creative writing and teach in a university setting. I have continued writing under the mentorships of Robin Behn, Heidi Lynn Staples, and Hank Lazer. My poems have been published in PANK, Salamander, Nashville Review, Crab Creek Review, Raleigh Review, DIAGRAM, Salt Hill, Puerto del Sol, Weave Magazine, Cincinnati Review, and others. New work is forthcoming from Ninth Letter. I am co-founder and lead editor of Utter--an online journal of writing and visual art--and co-editor of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop (forthcoming, Minor Arcana Press).
I began writing as an undergraduate student under the guidance of Kevin Boyle, Jeff Stein, and Paul Crenshaw at Elon. After teaching for three years at my alma mater, Middle Creek High School, I decided to pursue graduate studies in creative writing and teach in a university setting. I have continued writing under the mentorships of Robin Behn, Heidi Lynn Staples, and Hank Lazer. My poems have been published in PANK, Salamander, Nashville Review, Crab Creek Review, Raleigh Review, DIAGRAM, Salt Hill, Puerto del Sol, Weave Magazine, Cincinnati Review, and others. New work is forthcoming from Ninth Letter. I am co-founder and lead editor of Utter--an online journal of writing and visual art--and co-editor of It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop (forthcoming, Minor Arcana Press).