When I was younger, I was fascinated by the concept of “talent development”—how someone could take a spark of natural affinity and turn it into greatness. It wasn’t until I began teaching that I realized I had been putting so much of my attention on the first word, “talent,” and not nearly enough on the second. Now I know better.

Since then, I’ve clocked over a thousand hours helping people go from whatever stage of writing they’re at to whatever level they’re willing to work to get.

My experience and credentials:

• 6 years undergraduate creative writing teacher

• 2 years undergraduate composition teacher

• 2 years Army flight instructor

• 1 year English-as-a-second-language teacher with International House Lima

• MFA in creative writing from Ohio State University

• Ph.D. in creative writing from Florida State University

• Head Fiction Editor at The Journal—Ohio State’s literary magazine

• Fiction Reader at The Southeast Review—Florida State’s literary magazine