*Selected credits and experience, updated January 2026. A complete CV is available on request.
Click here to view a list in reverse chronological order.

Education

2008: Auburn University at Montgomery, Master of Liberal Arts degree, emphasis in English

1996: Auburn University at Montgomery, Bachelor of Arts in English, minor in Theater

1992: Saint James School, high school diploma with Thespian honors (Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center)

Awards & Honors

2015: Distinguished Alumnus, Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center/Booker T. Washington Magnet High School

2012: Distinguished Alumnus, Auburn University at Montgomery Department of Liberal Arts

2010: bronzed hands included in the “Hands Uplifted for Freedom and Justice” permanent exhibit at the Troy University Rosa Parks Museum

2009 – 2010: Secondary Teacher of the Year for the Alabama (state) PTA

2006 – 2007: Secondary Teacher of the Year for the Montgomery County Board of Education

2006 – 2007: Secondary Teacher of the Year for the Montgomery County Council of PTAs

Fellowships & Residencies

2020: Literary Arts Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts

2015: Community Legacy Project grant from the Boston Arts Academy

2011: Writer-in-Service Residency from the Lillian E. Smith Foundation

2009 – 2010: Arts Teacher Fellowship from the Surdna Foundation 

Writing/Editing

Writing: Books

2023: Faith. Virtue. Wisdom.: A History of Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School, 1873 – 2023 (commissioned)

2018: Closed Ranks: The Whitehurst Case in Post-Civil Rights Montgomery (NewSouth Books)

2009: The Life and Poetry of John Beecher, 1904 – 1980: Advocate of Poetry As A Spoken Art (Edwin Mellen Press)

2009: I Just Make People Up: Ramblings with Clark Walker (NewSouth Books)

2002: Kindling Not Yet Split (Court Street Press)

Editing: Books

2011: Children of the Changing South: Accounts of Growing Up During and After Integration (McFarland & Co.)

Publishing-Related Work Experience

July 2020 – present: editor of Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore

March 2020 – December 2023, editor of level:deepsouth— for Generation X

July 2003 – December 2005: editor of honeydü: the sweetest thing

February 2001 – September 2003: production manager/editor at NewSouth Books

Writing/Editing: Curriculum

2019: writer of curriculum guide for Emily Blejwas’ The Story of Alabama in Fourteen Foods, published by the University of Alabama Press

2018: writer of lesson plans for field trip curriculum packet for the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, AL

2009: general editor for Treasuring Alabama’s Black Belt: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Place (AUM/AHF)

Writing: Periodicals, Databases, and Websites

*see the Nonfiction page

Writing: Short Fiction and Poetry

*available on request

Education/Teaching Experience

Teaching

*Current secondary-education ELA teaching certificate is valid for July 2022 – June 2027

2022 – present: academic writing advisor, literary magazine advisor, instructor at Huntingdon College

2003 – 2022: creative writing and English teacher at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School

2016 – 2017 and 2021 – 2022: facilitator for Alabama State Department of Education’s ACCESS distance-learning program

2011, 2012, and 2013: adjunct composition instructor at Auburn University at Montgomery

2007 and 2008: creative writing teacher for Alabama State Department of Education’s ACCESS distance-learning program

2005 and 2006: creative writing teacher for Auburn University at Montgomery’s Summer Youth College

2005: creative writing teacher for Auburn University’s Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project

Student Projects

*see the Books and Projects pages

Community Involvement/Cultural Work (selected)

January 2026: judge for Region 2 competition in Poetry Out Loud

2017 – 2024: board member of The F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum

2019 – 2023: board member for the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health

2022: chair for Faculty Wellness & Fulfillment committee, Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School strategic planning

2015 – 2021: volunteer at the Old Cloverdale Association Community Garden

2017: partner/interviewer for The Gathering Year (public history program in Montgomery County)

2015 – 2017: Sunday school teacher at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church

2013, 2014, and 2017: vacation bible school volunteer at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church

2014 – 2017: representative to the Montgomery County Council of PTAs for Forest Avenue Academic Magnet School PTA

2015 – 2016: invited participant for Montgomery Public Schools’ Magnet Equity Committee

2014 – 2015: program designer and selection committee for Montgomery Children’s Walk 2015 mini-grants program 

2014 – 2015: planning committee and curriculum writer for traveling exhibit on Frank M. Johnson, Jr. and the Freedom Riders, a project of the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, AL 

2008 – 2015: planning committee for the Alabama Book Festival

2007, 2008, and 2014: literature grants review panel member for Alabama State Council on the Arts

2014: poll watcher at Huntingdon College precinct (101) for the Montgomery Election Center

2013: participant in the Alabama Education Association’s Minority Leadership Training 

2013: participant in the Alabama Education Association’s Emerging Leaders program 

2013 – 2022: reader/judge in Literature category for statewide Reflections competition, Alabama PTA

2010 and 2011: policy advocate for National Council of the Teacher of English (NCTE), assigned to Sen. Richard Shelby

2006 – 2007: local organizer for Independent Lens. (Local screenings held at Equality Alabama)

2005: curriculum development chairman/organizing committee for The Montgomery Children’s Walk

2002: assisted in development for the Lowndes Interpretive Center on the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historical Trail

Professional Development Presentations

July 16, 2022: session leader on using film adaptations at the Fitzgerald Museum’s Teaching The Great Gatsby Conference at Huntingdon College

July 31, 2019: session leader for Sprouts School Garden Workshop, a teacher institute by EAT South

June 18–19, 2019: master teacher for Alabama Humanities Foundation SUPER Institute “Reflecting on Our Justice System,” a teacher institute with Equal Justice Initiative

February 15, 2019: session leader on using local history for English and Social Studies departments at The Randolph School in Huntsville, AL

January 11, 2018: session leader for “Using Oral History in the Creative Writing Classroom” for Alabama Bicentennial Commission workshop on writing and research

June 26 – 29, 2017: master teacher for Alabama Humanities Foundation SUPER Institute “Sense of Place: Stories of Alabama in History and Fiction,” a teacher institute on state culture

April 4, 2017: session leader of “Intersections of the Humanities & the Local,” a writing-centered session on using local history in humanities courses, for the Alabama Humanities Foundation

October 27, 2016, session leader of “Start by Listening: Ethnographic Experiential Learning in the Local Community” at the Arts Schools Network conference in Dallas, TX 

January 4, 2016: session leader on “Peer Reviewing within a Writing Process” for Elmore County English Language Arts teachers

February 10, 2010: session leader on using Treasuring Alabama’s Black Belt curriculum guide at Black Belt Treasures in Camden, AL

Academic and Literary Presentations (selected)

February 27 – March 1, 2026: visiting presenter of Three Days of August Wilson at the Pure Life Theatre (Raleigh, North Carolina)

November 4, 2025: guest speaker for Dr. Madison Clark’s historical research class at Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota)

May 10, 2025: presenting writer at the Author’s Expo-sium in Prattville, Alabama

May 10, 2022: presenting writer at “Mindfulness Inspires” reading at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

December 14, 2021: presenting writer at “Lesley Dill: Wilderness Inspires” reading at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

March 4, 2021: featured author at the Monroeville Literary Festival (for Nobody’s Home)

2018 – 2020: featured author (for Closed Ranks) at History Museum of Mobile, Alabama Book Festival, Alabama Department of Archives & History, One Montgomery, as well as book clubs, churches, and prayer groups in central Alabama

May 9, 2015: presenting reader in “Southern Voices” at the Cloverdale Playhouse in Montgomery, AL

2014 – 2019, 2022 – 2023: presenting writer at the annual In The Arts: A Career Event for Teens at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

February 27, 2014: guest lecturer on “The Bernard Whitehurst Case” for Auburn University at Montgomery’s School of Liberal Arts lecture series

April 2012: featured author (for Children of the Changing South) at Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, AL 

February 10, 2012: reading of “You Can’t Know Where You’re Going (When There’s Something in your I)” included at Auburn University at Montgomery Liberal Arts Conference (AUMLAC), with Southern Studies theme, in Montgomery, AL

February 18, 2011: panelist in “Voices of the South: Fiction and Poetry” panel at Auburn University at Montgomery Liberal Arts Conference (AUMLAC), with Southern Studies theme, in Montgomery, AL

April 2010: featured author (for The Life and Poetry of John Beecher) at Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, AL

March 26, 2010: panelist at Auburn University at Montgomery Liberal Arts Conference (AUMLAC), presented paper on using creative writing as an alternative assignment in college literature course in Montgomery, AL

November 2009: chair for “SAMLA Creative Nonfiction Writers” at South Atlantic MLA Conference – theme: “Human Rights and the Humanities” – in Atlanta, GA

October 2009: featured author (for three books on Alabama subjects: I Just Make People Up, The Life and Poetry of John Beecher, and Treasuring Alabama’s Black Belt) at the Ottawa International Writers Festival in Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

July 2009: panelist on “Student Publication Opportunities in Writing and Rhetoric” and “Spotlight On: The National Conversation on Writing in Local Contexts” at the Council of Writing Programs Administrators conference in Minneapolis, MN

April 2009: featured author (for I Just Make People Up) at Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, AL

November 2008: panelist on “SAMLA Creative Nonfiction Writers” at South Atlantic MLA Conference in Louisville, KY

April 2004: panelist representing NewSouth Books at Eugene Walter Literary Festival, Mobile, AL

November 2003: reading poet, 10th annual Insomniacathon in Louisville, KY

April 2003: panelist representing NewSouth Books at Gulf Coast Creative Writers & Teachers Conference in Fairhope, AL

September 2002: panelist representing NewSouth Books at Lost State Writers Conference in Greeneville, TN

Fall 2001: seminar speaker on self-publishing, University of Alabama-Birmingham Continuing Education

The Arts

Book Layout/Design

2023 – present: advisor, design/layout for The Prelude student literary magazine

2023: design/layout/production for Faith. Virtue. Wisdom.: A History of Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School, 1873 – 2023

2003 – 2022: advisor, design/layout for Graphophobia student literary magazine

2007: design/layout for Alabama Listening in the Cold War Era by Susan Shehane, Coosa River Books

2003 – 2005: designer/layout for honeydü magazine and broadsides

2003: designer/layout for Auburn University at Montgomery’s Filibuster, Spring and Fall 2003

Music 

2009 – 2010: guitar introductions for “Patchwork” podcast and videos

March 2005: guest guitarist on “500 Miles” on Sarah Elizabeth Whitehead’s Play It For Me CD

Community Theater (and Film), 1987 – 1993

*available on request

Media Features

*A full list is available on request.

March 5, 2021: included in an article, “Race is a thorny topic in America. Some say schools must join the conversation.” in Montgomery Advertiser

July 2020: interview with The Alabama Writers Cooperative’s Alina Stefanescu, talking about current projects

August 2, 2010: interviewed for “Mobile in Black and White: Race Relations in the 21st Century,” a documentary on race relations (Released in 2014)  

July 19, 2009: featured guest on the Alabama State Council on the Arts’ “Alabama Arts Radio Series” series for “Patchwork” project and the Arts Teacher Fellowship from the Surdna Foundation

February 2008: featured in Southern Poverty Law Center “Teaching Tolerance” video series:

Selecting Diverse Texts and Authors  •  Initiating Contact  •  Using Plain Terms

August 16, 2007: featured in WAKA (CBS) segment “What’s Right With Our Schools” for Our Hope

February 10, 2007: featured in Montgomery Advertiser Editorial section: a Rave in “Rants and Raves”

October 30, 2006: featured in Montgomery Advertiser’s FYI Teacher Profile 

October 2006: featured in “Around Alabama” section of Southern Living for Taking the Time book

August 2006: interviewed for “381: A Documentary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott”

Early work experience, 1990 – 2000 (selected)

1999 – 2000: kitchen manager/cook, Derk’s Filet & Vine

1998 – 1999: bartender/server then general manager, The Pub

1997 – 1998: inventory clerk, Beepers Unlimited

1997: barback/bartender, 1048 Jazz & Blues

1992 – 1997: veterinary assistant, Brown & Sternenberg Animal Hospital

1992: landscape crew, Montgomery Landscaping Company

1991 – 1992: freelance theater tech, BLP Lighting and/or the Davis Theatre