About

My pronouns are they/multitudes. I grew up in the Bronx and have also lived in Manhattan; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Goshen, Indiana; DeKalb, Illinois; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Utica, New York. I now live in Jersey City, New Jersey. My mother’s family is Swiss Mennonite (i.e., it’s an ethnicity, not necessarily a theological persuasion), and my father’s family is Puerto Rican. I have an MFA in Creative Nonfiction and an MA and PhD in English. I have taught at Northern Illinois University, Westminster University (Utah), Utica University, and Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Thinkers who influence me include Cameron Awkward-Rich, James Baldwin, Bashō, Dodie Bellamy, Ana Castillo, Ann Cvetkovich, Samuel R. Delany, Diane di Prima, Martín Espada, Jeff Gundy, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Aurora Levins Morales, Audre Lorde, Carley Moore, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Casey Plett, Sofia Samatar, Sami Schalk, Walt Whitman, numerous English-language haiku writers, and the New York School of poets.

The links on the Interviews page include discussions of some of my reading and writing interests.