Writing Coach

I love teaching, and during the time I have lived in Western North Carolina, since 2010, I’ve been fortunate enough to teach students from Texas, California, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Arizona and from North Carolina, in classes for the Great Smokies Program out of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, in private classes at my cabin, in Zoom classes, and through phone tutorials. I work with writers on individual poems, as well as helping them edit chapbooks and books. One of my Philadelphia students published a novel. I’ve lost count of the number of poetry chapbooks and books my students have published. I have taught undergraduates at Temple University and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and at Rhodes College, in Memphis, but most of the writers who currently study with me are older adults who are interested in Lifelong Learning and who fulfill their writing dreams by eventually winning awards, publishing in journals, chapbooks and books. But a number write just for the joy and release in expressing themselves. I welcome those who are just beginning to write, as well as more serious writers.

I studied with many famous poets, but the most important element I assimilated as a teacher, along with prosodic techniques, was that encouragement, support, and regarding the positive aspects of a piece of writing are paramount in my teaching style, along with a sense of humor.

I received faculty teaching awards from Temple University and Rhodes College. My Rhodes students won fellowships to study at the University of Michigan, New York University, the University of Las Vegas at Nevada, the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi, and attended Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, the University of Edinburgh, Emerson, the University of Indiana at Bloomington, Duke University, the University of Missouri and the New School. My students have won the Vassar Miller Book Prize, and independent students have won the Guy Owen Prize from the Southern Poetry Review, the James Dickey Prize from Five Points Journal, and other honors.

My own experience includes not only writing poetry, an academic dissertation, even website materials, but also articles, essays and book reviews for The Harvard Review, boundary 2, The Boston Review, Notre Dame Review, Obsidian, and The Journal of Modern Literature.