*Selected credits and experience, updated March 2021. A complete CV is available on request.

Formal Education

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

2004 – 2005: Alabama State University, Alternative B teaching certificate coursework

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

1992: Saint James School, High School Diploma with Thespian Honors

1990 – 1992: Carver Creative and Performing Arts Center’s Technical Theater component

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

September 2006: Alabama Power “Power Educator” Award recipient

Fellowships & Residencies

2021: 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

2018: author of Closed Ranks: The Whitehurst Case in Post-Civil Rights Montgomery, a long-form work of history/crime published by NewSouth Books

2009: author of The Life and Poetry of John Beecher, 1904-1980: Advocate of Poetry As A Spoken Art, a biography with literary criticism published by Edwin Mellen Press

2009: author of I Just Make People Up: Ramblings with Clark Walker, an artist’s biography and full-color retrospective published by NewSouth Books 

2002: author of Kindling Not Yet Split, a poetry chapbook (out of print), published by Court Street Press

Editing: Books & Other Full-Length Publications

2011: editor of Children of the Changing South: Accounts of Growing Up During and After Integration, a collection of memoirs published by McFarland & Co.

2003: editorial assistant on Weren’t No Good Times, Alabama slave narratives edited by Randall Williams and published by John F. Blair, Publisher

2002: editor for I Dared to Try, a memoir by Thomas Bobo, former Montgomery Public Schools superintendent, published by Court Street Press

Writing: Blogs

April 2010 – present: author blog titled Welcome to Eclectic: Deep Southern, Diversified & Re-Imagined

Publishing-Related Work Experience

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

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

July 2003 – December 2005: founding editor of honeydü, a literary magazine, poetry broadsides

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

2001 – 2003: founder/coordinator, The Writers’ Group at the NewSouth Books & the Dropping the Hammer Poetry Contest

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 pre-field trip curriculum packet for the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, AL

2016: writer of curriculum guide for traveling educational exhibit on Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. and the 1961 Freedom Riders, a project of the Freedom Rides Museum

2009: general editor for Treasuring Alabama’s Black Belt: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Place, published by Auburn University at Montgomery and the Alabama Humanities Foundation

Writing/Editing: Communications

August – December 2018: interim communications director for the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Montgomery, AL

Writing: Periodicals, Databases, and Websites

February 2021: “Mary Elvira Wood” and “Mary A John Watson” entries in the Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement

June 2020: “Pearl Still (Nowlin)” entry in the Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement

February 7, 2020: “Normandale: Where Everyone Knew Your Name,” a sketch for the Montgomery Advertiser‘s “Love Letters to Montgomery” series, in partnership with the City of Montgomery

February 1, 2020: “Artists and Writers Will Love This Quiet Mountaintop Retreat” for It’s a Southern Thing (Red Clay Media)

October 2017: “Andrew Lytle” entry for Auburn University’s Encyclopedia of Alabama

Summer 2012: book review of The South That Wasn’t There by Michael Kreyling in Callaloo: A Journal of the African Diaspora

2009 – 2010: book reviewer for Multicultural Review

Winter 2009: “Bringing Poetry Back Home,” an article on teaching poetry to working-class and low-income students, in Multicultural Review

March 2009: “John Beecher” entry for Auburn University’s Encyclopedia of Alabama 

September 2008: “Mary Ward Brown” entry for Auburn University’s  Encyclopedia of Alabama 

2007 – 2008: contributing writer for Montgomery Living (now River Region Living)

January 2007: “Writing is Activism,” an essay in NPR’s “This I Believe” project. 

June 2005: “An Interview with Ron Whitehead” in Evergreen Review issue #110

May 2005: “The House of Crosses,” an article in Weird Alabama issue #2

May 2003: “The Irony of John Beecher,” an article on Literary Kicks

Aug 2001 – Feb 2004: staff writer/book reviewer for King Kudzu

May 2001 – June 2006: staff book reviewer for Foreword Reviews

March – April 2001: site reviewer for The Webby Awards

Writing: Short Fiction

September 2005: “The Wallet” in Crush, Volume 3, Issue 4 

June 2005: “Haiku” in Poor Mojo’s Almanac #221 

April 2005: “Highway 50” in Southern Cross Review, Number 40 

Writing: Poetry

Spring 2013: “Cultural Criticism” in Steel Toe Review

April 2009: “The Brotherhood of Man” in Birmingham Arts Journal 

November 2007: “Murder Ballad” in Cherry Bleeds 

October 2006: “Recipe,” in Alabama State Poetry Society’s Sampler 

July 2006: “Four Haiku about One Simple Thing,” in anthology Celebrate! Poets Speak Out 

June 2006: “On Hearing Li-Young Lee Read His Poetry,” in Antithesis Common, issue #4 

May 2006: “February 22, 2005,” in anthology Celebrate! Poets Speak Out

March 2006: “Going Back in Time for Now’s Sake,” in Pemmican 

March 2006: “Domesticity,” in remark 

Fall 2005: “Hasidic Prayer,” in Snow Monkey 

August 2005: “Hailstone Gumbo,” in Churches, Banks & Bars, issue #4 

June 2005: “Coming Down off the Cumberland” and “Wrecking Ball” in Stick Your Neck Out 

May 2005: “Firecracker,” in The SiNK [sic] Volume 2, Issue 2 

March 2005: “Lightning Bug,” in Poor Mojo’s Almanac #217 

March 2005: “Thanksgiving Eve” in My Favorite Bullet, Volume 6, issue 2 

December 2004: “I Hope You Don’t Know Me” in Zygote in my Coffee, issue #30 

December 2004: “Those Who Don’t Amount to Much” on Insomniacathon ’04 event website

July 2004: “Ain’t No Tellin’ What’ll Become of Me” in Churches, Banks & Bars, issue #3 

May 2004: “A Blank Sheet of Paper” & “Muddy Boots: A Sonnet” in Red River Review

February 2004: “Clamor at the Table,” in Zygote in my Coffee, issue #4 

Fall 2003: “Oct 12, 2002,” “From the Backside of the Bar,” and “Sept. 26, 2002,” in Filibuster 

Spring 2003: excerpt from Continuum and “August 26, 2002” in Filibuster 

Education/Teaching Experience

Teaching

*Current teaching certificate is valid for July 2017 – July 2022

September 2003 – Present: teacher at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School
Courses taught: Creative Writing levels 1, 2, 3, and 4; Creative Writing elective; English 12

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

Fall semesters 2011, 2012 and 2013: adjunct professor at Auburn University at Montgomery
Course taught: ENG 0100/0101: Basic English and the Writing Lab

Spring semesters 2007 and 2008: teacher for Alabama State Department of Education’s ACCESS distance-learning program
Course taught: Creative Writing

Summers 2005 and 2006: teacher for Auburn University at Montgomery’s Summer Youth College
Course taught: Creative Writing

Summer 2005: teacher for Auburn University’s Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
Course taught: Creative Writing

Student Projects

2020 – 2021: Sketches of Newtown, a student-written monograph about the Newtown community, which is a follow-up project to the 2019 project

2003 – present: Graphophobia, annually published student literary magazine that has received awards from the Iowa High School Press Association and Alabama Writers Forum

2018 – 2019: oral history collection in Newtown community, a historically black neighborhood in northern Montgomery, a partnership with The Gathering Year

2008 – 2017: “Speaking for the Dead,” a collaborative project with Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH) and Montgomery’s historic Oakwood Cemetery

October 2015 – May 2019: newsprung: art & writing in the deep south, a revised/updated online media project that includes student-written posts about community events, competitions, and other arts and literary news

August 2009 – May 2014: newsprung, an online media project featured student-written articles about the the Kentuck Festival of Arts and ekphrastic writings based on artworks at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

August 2010 – April 2011: Cast Your Bucket Down, a student-written blogging project on the subjects of food and farming

2008 – 2009: More Than A Century Later: 21st Century Student Perspectives on Alabama’s 1901 Constitution, a joint project of the Creative Writing magnet, Law magnet, and Social Studies department that involved classroom lessons, readings, and guest speakers, and culminated in a student-written anthology of responsive writings about the state’s controversial constitution

2007 – 2014: workshop with University of Alabama Book Arts MFA Program, an annual one-day workshop on letterpress printing and fine-art bookmaking

2007 – 2009: writingourhope.org, a two-year follow-up project to the Our Hope book consisted of a student-edited e-zine, also on tolerance and equality themes, which accepted submissions from students nationwide.

2006 – 2007: Our Hope: Writings and Photographs by Teenagers on Tolerance and Equality, a student-written literary anthology on tolerance and equality themes was compiled and published by BTWMHS Creative Writing students

2004 – 2005: Taking the Time: Young Writers and Old Stories, a Civil Rights history book written by BTW Creative Writing students during the anniversary year of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Selma-to-Montgomery March, was based on interviews with participants in and on-lookers to the movement.

2004 – 2007: hy-coo.com, an online media project to publish student-written haiku.

Grants

2020: Education grant from the Alabama Bicentennial Commission to continue/expand project in Newtown

2018: Honorable Mention grant from the Alabama Bicentennial Commission for oral histories project in Newtown

2007 – 2008: Gannett Foundation grant for newsprung.com

2007: discretionary grant from Sen. Quinton Ross for Our Hope project

2006 – 2007: Teaching Tolerance grant from Southern Poverty Law Center for Our Hope 

2004 – 2005: Teaching Tolerance grant from Southern Poverty Law Center for Taking the Time

2004 – 2005: Gannett Foundation grant for Taking the Time: Young Writers and Old Stories

Community Involvement/Cultural Work

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

2019: invited participant for planning/input meetings for expansion of the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, AL

2017: partner/interviewer for The Gathering Year, a public history program to collect stories and photographs from Montgomery County during its bicentennial year

March 2017 – present: board member of The F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, AL
2018 – present: Literary Contest coordinator

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

September 2015 – April 2017: Sunday school teacher at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church
2015 – 2016: third grade • 2016 – 2017: fifth and sixth grades

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2013 – 2020: reader/judge in Literature category for statewide Reflections competition, Alabama PTA (in February each year)

Summer and Fall 2012: steering committee member for Community-Based Tourism Wealth Creation Initiative (curriculum/training development for Black Belt region), organized by Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families (SURREF)

June 19, 2012: guest speaker on Civil Rights history for Montgomery Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Montgomery program

May 2011: invited committee member for Montgomery Public Schools Magnet Committee (for planning the proposed Lanier Magnet Center)

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

2008 – 2015: planning committee for the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery, AL
Committees: Education/Outreach, Nonfiction Book Selection

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

2007: organizing committee for “Using the Past to Reshape the Future: A Civil Rights Education Summit” at the Troy University Rosa Parks Library and Museum. 

2006 – 2007: local organizer for Independent Lens, a PBS/ITVS film series on social justice issues. Local screenings were held at Equality Alabama. 

2005: curriculum development chairman/organizing committee for The Montgomery Children’s Walk, an event on December 1, 2005  to involve school children in commemorating the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ arrest.

2002: assisted in research, development, and collection of images for the Lowndes Interpretive Center on the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historical Trail, during employment with NewSouth Books

Professional Development Presentations

July 31, 2019: professional development 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: professional development session leader on using local history for English and Social Studies departments at The Randolph School (Huntsville, AL)

January 11, 2018: professional development 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: professional development 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, presenter of “Start by Listening: Ethnographic Experiential Learning in the Local Community” at the Arts Schools Network conference (Dallas, TX) 

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

February 10, 2010: presenter, day-long professional development workshop on using Treasuring Alabama’s Black Belt curriculum guide at Black Belt Treasures in Camden, AL

Academic and Literary Presentations

March 24, 2021: presenter (on oral histories) at Kress on Dexter’s ClubHouse series

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

March 18, 2017: presenting author at the Baldwin Writers Group in Daphne, AL 

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

2014 – 2019: 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

2003 – Present: designer/layout, Graphophobia student literary magazine

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

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

2003: designer/layout, 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

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

November 21, 2019: guest on Community Forum with Carolyn Hutcheson on WTSU 89.9 FM in Montgomery, talking about the Library of Congress’s StoryCorps program

July 6, 2019: guest on Real Talk with Herschel on WCKG radio 99.1 FM in Dothan, talking about Closed Ranks 

May 7, 2019: guest on Community Forum with Carolyn Hutcheson on WTSU 89.9 FM in Montgomery, talking about Closed Ranks

April 22, 2019: subject of an article, “Two MPS teachers selected to attend sustainability academy” in Montgomery Advertiser 

December 2, 2018: featured guest on the Alabama News Network’s “In the Community” program, talking about Closed Ranks

November 2, 2018: subject of an article, “Police shootings, justice and Montgomery itself at the heart of new book about the Whitehurst killing” in Montgomery Advertiser

November 1, 2018: segment on 10:00 Report on WSFA about release of Closed Ranks

October 31, 2018: guest on Kevin Elkins radio show on WLWI 1440 AM, to talk about Closed Ranks

August 18, 2018: interviewed for “‘A sad day’: Teachers share what was lost in BTW fire” in Montgomery Advertiser

February 20, 2016: interviewed for “Alabama educators reflect on impact of Harper Lee’s works” for WSFA TV in Montgomery

December 4, 2015: featured in “Montgomery erects second marker honoring Bernard Whitehurst” in Montgomery Advertiser

December 11, 2011: subject of an article, “Teacher’s book looks at Changing South” in Montgomery Advertiser

February 10, 2011: subject of an article, “BTW teacher Dickson wins first Smith Foundation Award” in Montgomery Independent

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

February 28, 2010: interviewed about “Patchwork” project on the “Dr. Rock and Captain Fantasy Show” on WEGL radio in Auburn, AL

September 21, 2009: featured in “New Book explores Black Belt Region” in Montgomery Advertiser 

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

July 9, 2009: subject of an article, “Taking Teaching to Another Level,” in Montgomery Independent newspaper

June 2009: subject of an Art Beat article, “The Art of the Word,” in Montgomery Living magazine

April 16, 2009: featured (with students) in an article, “Local Students are Honored in Literary Arts competition,” in Montgomery Independent newspaper 

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

August 15, 2007: featured in Montgomery Advertiser for the release of Our Hope book

April 2007: featured in Montgomery Living for being named Montgomery’s Secondary Teacher of the Year 

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

February 2, 2007: featured in Montgomery Advertiser, “District teachers earn top honors”

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

October 8, 2006: featured in the Montgomery Advertiser for the “Power Educator” award

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

August 2006: featured in “381: A Documentary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott”

December 2004 & October 2005: interviewed by Adrian Harewood on “Saturday Morning Live,” radio show on CKLN radio (Toronto, Ontario)