Published: Dec 24th, 2017
It’s Christmas Eve and I’ve just returned from Greece, where I spoke at the conference Politics of Space and the Humanities in Thessaloniki. It was my first encounter with that… Read More
Published: Oct 31st, 2017
It’s Halloween. FEST 16 just painted my downtown black with underground musicians and punk rock fans. And I’m 200 miles south of Flannery O’Connor’s childhood home. So I’m thinking about… Read More
Published: Oct 10th, 2017
This week I read a story from a last month’s New Yorker at 30,000 feet – Edwidge Danticat’s remarkable “Sunrise, Sunset.” Shuttling from one airport to another, crossing state lines,… Read More
Published: Sep 28th, 2017
With Hugh Hefner’s passing, the sexual revolutions of the 1950s and 60s are trending again in the news. The fundamental revolution of Playboy wasn’t its nude female models, but its… Read More
Published: Sep 14th, 2017
I don’t hail from Robert Frost‘s neck of the woods. But here in my North Central Florida woods after Hurricane Irma, I’m thinking about Frost’s poem “The Line-Gang” from his… Read More
Published: Aug 3rd, 2017
Flannery O’Connor departed from this earthly life 92 years ago today. I find myself far more interested in her arrivals. FOC is arriving in my inbox an awful lot these… Read More
Published: Feb 15th, 2017
For the Mouse is a creature of great personal valour. For this is a true case–Cat takes female mouse, male mouse will not depart, but stands threatening and daring. Plot… Read More
Published: Jan 25th, 2017
I’ve recently assumed an administrative position that involves mentoring over 100 graduate teaching assistants. They include new and seasoned instructors. They include MFA and PhD students who teach a range… Read More
Published: Sep 25th, 2016
This week I taught Linton Kwesi Johnson again in my PostPunk Cultures seminar on the British 1980s. (I also teach him in Modern British Poetry). Each time I return to… Read More
Published: Aug 20th, 2016
Here’s a conversation starter I tried out for new TA Orientation, co-sponsored by UF English and the University Writing Program. Feel free to play along! Whichever teaching persona you are–or most decidedly… Read More