Writing with Heart

My teaching, writing, community and consulting work form a tapestry stitched together by a continuous thread I have followed all my life related to notions of home and family, intimacy and connection, art and beauty, social inequalities, social justice, and social change. Learn more about my latest book Welcome to Wherever We Are: A Memoir of Family, Caregiving, and Redemption.

Writing with Heart

Though I was never formally trained in writing creative nonfiction, it is what I am most drawn to. So, in 2000, while I was working on my dissertation, I followed my passion and began studying memoir in earnest. I have taken many writing workshops including ones through: The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Grub Street Writers in Boston, Massachusetts, The Blue Hills Writing Institute (formerly in Milton, MA), Union Institute and University in Montpelier, Vermont, and The Sun Magazine Writers’ Conference.

I call what I do sociological memoir in that I draw on sociology which I know, love and trust to reveal structural underpinnings and patterns, and I draw on memoir to both illustrate memories and as a vehicle to interpret them. The analytical and interpretive properties of both—sociology and memoir—are quite similar. Sociology provides the conceptual, theoretical, and practical tools and vocabulary to explore the social forces that shape, support, complicate and constrain individuals’ choices and actions. Both sociology and memoir offer opportunities to analyze individuals’ relationships with social institutions and to question, reflect on, and put the pieces of our own lives together again.

Books

I am also working on several book projects throughout the year.

  • Welcome to Wherever We Are: A Memoir of Family, Caregiving, and Redemption. View more information about the book.
  • Going to College Together and Apart: A Professor Translates the Campus Experience for Parents and Students (Book in progress).
  • The Grief of a Teacher: What Is Involved and What is at Stake in Teaching About Intimacy and Violence. View the publication online via PDF.

Book Chapters

Here’s a selection of anthologies to which I have contributed:

  • “What We Need to Teach Now,” in COVID-19: Social Consequences and Cultural Adaptations, edited by J. Michael Ryan, Routledge. 2020.
  • “Understanding Gendered Violence,” in Social Studies of Gender: A Next Wave Reader, edited by Christine V. Wood, Cognella Academic Publishing. 2020.
  • “Violence, Rage, Creativity and the Re-birth of the Self,” in Violent States: Individual to International Creative States: Overcoming Violence. Editors: John Adlam, James Gilligan, Tilman Kluttig, Bandy X. Lee and John L. Young. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 2018.
  • “Rage and Activism: The Promise of Black Lives Matter” in Violence Against Black Bodies: An Intersectional Analysis on Why Black Lives Continue to Matter, edited by Sandra Weissinger, Dwayne Mack and Elwood Watson. Routledge. 2017.
  • “Learning for a Change: Rage and the Promise of the Feminist Classroom,” in Teaching Sex and Gender in Contemporary America, edited by Kristin Haltinner and Ryanne Pilgeram. Springer Press. 2016. View purchase details on the Springer Press website.
  • “The Gold Pen,” essay in anthology titled, Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insights and Activism, co-edited by Catherine Valentine and Donna King, Vanderbilt University Press. 2015. The Utne Reader selected this chapter for reprinting and it ranked as one of their “most popular” articles on their website. View the article on the Utne Reader website.
  • “Patriarchy Encourages Violence Against Women,” in Violence Against Women, edited book by Karen F. Balkin, Greenhaven Press, Thomson/Gale. 2004.

Journal Articles

Here is a brief listing of the journal articles I have worked on.

Poetry Collections

Here is a brief listing of the collections of poetry in which I have been featured:

  • “The Monday After Umpqua,” poem on gun violence and mass shootings featured in BANG!, an anthology. Over 700 poems were submitted and approximately 80 are being published. Forthcoming.
  • “A Rage Against/ From the Female Body,” poem featured in the anthology, Purple Sparks: Poetry by Survivors of Sexual Assault, Youth Sparks, January 2016.

Learn more about my teaching, writing, community and consulting work. For further details about my work, availability and inquiry, you can connect with me on social media or feel free to also contact me online.