POETRY

Publications

Until now, I have pursued publication in only a few short spurts of activity. I am presently immersed in the study of journals and of the poets who are published in them. I hope to keep extending my list of publications across the months and years ahead.

Forthcoming (2026):

“Fathers” and “Second Son”: Chiron Review

“1970” and “Route 280”: Paterson Literary Review: 

“Yellow”: Pine Hills Review

Published:

“Just Moments Married”: Lips, Spring 2023

“Earth”: North Dakota Quarterly, Fall/ Winter 2021

“Writing Process”: New Jersey English Journal, 2013

“Imagining the Man in the Station” and “When the Dinner Guest Comes”: Journal of New Jersey Poets, Autumn 1994

“Maintenance”: English Journal, February 1994

Background/ Training

I consider myself an emerging poet even though I have been poetry-connected across most decades of my life, particularly as a high school teacher of English and creative writing. I have always written, including with my students, but I am only now dedicating the time and effort to my writing that I had always intended to dedicate. 

I recently completed a full-length poetry manuscript, which I hope to publish at some point soon. I am also actively sending out poems for publication–poems from that manuscript as well as others.

I am not the product of an MFA program, but I have taken undergraduate and graduate classes with many wonderful poets and scholars, including Deborah Pope and Reynolds Price (Duke University), Molly Peacock and Harold Bloom (New York University) and Brad Gooch (William Paterson University). 

Thanks to government funding, I was able to participate in two National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Seminars: with Paul Mariani (studying Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams at University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and with Carl Hovde (studying Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman at Columbia University). 

At the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, Mass.) and with two scholarships from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (Morristown, NJ), I have been lucky to take week-long workshops with Jim Moore (2005), Cleopatra Mathis (2006), and Porsha Olayiwola (2025). 

I did extended online study with Jim Moore through University of Minnesota. Thanks to Jim, I was able to have a private visit with Stanley Kunitz in his Provincetown home the summer he turned 100. Oh, and Marie Howe drove me there.

Most recently, I have been able to study with Betsy Sholl through the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance (MWPA). 

I am forever thankful to the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for all the poetry-related experiences they offered to me and others, including through the annual poetry festivals (where I sat in the presence of dozens of the world’s top poets, including but not limited to Gwendolyn Brooks, Stanley Kunitz, Eavon Boland, Lucille Clifton, Sharon Olds, Galway Kinnell, Marie Howe, Mark Doty, Yusef Komunyakaa), the mini festivals I was able to hold at my high school (where we hosted Aracelis Girmay and Patrick Rosal, among others), the teacher reading and writing groups they facilitated (where I was able to work with Madeline Tiger, Joe Weil, Robert Carnevale, and Renee Ashley).

I am also thankful for the The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College (Paterson, NJ) and the monumental work of Maria Mazziotti Gillan. Through Maria and the center, I have also been able to meet and to work closely with many more contemporary poets. 

I can’t ignore other opportunities I have had in New Jersey, including through the William Paterson University writing festival (workshop with Kimiko Hahn) and the Seton Hall University reading series.

My colleague Gary J. Whitehead and I were able to bring many poets to our high school, to deepen experiences for our students who were able to take up to four full years of creative writing. Guest writers include some poets I have already named as well as Thomas Sayers Ellis, Patricia Smith, Taylor Mali, Cat Doty, BJ Ward, Jack Wiler, Margie Barnes, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Madeline Tiger, and others.

We can’t leave out Princeton University, where we were able to bring our students to one of the most memorable field trips for a poetry festival that included Gary as one of the featured poets. Paul Muldoon created other experiences at Princeton that I have been able to enjoy.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is also a constant source of fresh experiences. I have been thrilled to sit in the audience of recent talks/readings by Tracy K. Smith and Ada Limon, among others.