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.
The links on the Interviews page include discussions of some of my reading and writing interests. 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, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Aurora Levins Morales, Carley Moore, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Casey Plett, Sofia Samatar, Walt Whitman, numerous English-language haiku writers, and the New York School of poets. I am also obsessed with baseball and its intellectual tradition. I have been a New York Mets fan since 1985.
