Where did you grow up?
Mercer Island, WA. My residence in Turkey proved equally as formative as I learned to live on simit and Hegel.
What degrees do you have and where did you earn them?
BA in English with a minor in Philosophy (Seattle University)
MA in Renaissance and Romantic Literature (University of Liverpool)
Master in Teaching with English Endorsement (Western Washington University)
What publications and awards best represent your work?
My unpublished poems for which I will decline a posthumous Nobel Prize in Literature.
What currently fascinates you?
The concept of artistic afterlife in which the work of a master influences subsequent artists. This afterlife occurs specifically in Botticelli's drawings of Dante's La Divina Comedia and generally in the broad influence of Milton on English Romanticism.
Have you read any good novels lately?
Novels? I prefer poetry and philosophy.
What classes are you most excited to teach this year?
Each class excites me because I love learning and teaching. This said, I have some fantasy courses: Renaissance and Romanticism. Ovid and Art, Artistic Afterlives, The Comic Vision of Hogarth and Fielding, Revolution in Milton and Beethoven, and Neoplatonic Aesthetics.
If you had one piece of advice for students, what would it be?
"All [wo]men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education." Scott