Gender ambiguity, class, and queerness are identifiable themes that connect my personal to my professional life. I grew up in the upper northwest corner of Iowa. Early life was characterized by bleak winters, teenage angst, punk music, and painfully self-conscious displays of mediocre athleticism before small town crowds. Within two weeks of formal adulthood, I moved to Iowa City to study journalism, then cinema and comparative lit, then finally English, at the University of Iowa. My hope is that my work reflects the critical curiosity I owe, in part, to my early academic experiences at Iowa.

I spent some time in the Pacific Northwest, served in the active duty army, and eventually made may way back to academia.