*Selected credits and experience, updated October 2020. A complete CV is available on request.
Formal Education
2008: Auburn University 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 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 – December 2019: sole blogger for Welcome to Eclectic: Deep Southern, Diversified & Re-Imagined
Publishing-Related Work Experience
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 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
Forthcoming: “Mrs. W. N. Wood” and “Mary 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
Forthcoming 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, as 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
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
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
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: “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: “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
February 20, 2016: interviewed for “Alabama educators reflect on impact of Harper Lee’s works” for WSFA TV in Montgomery
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)
