About

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 am now back in the New York metropolitan area working on an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Hunter College. 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 a PhD in English and have taught at Northern Illinois University, Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utica University, and Hunter College.

Thinkers who influence me include James Baldwin, Bashō, Dodie Bellamy, Ana Castillo, Ann Cvetkovich, Samuel R. Delany, Martín Espada, Jeff Gundy, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Audre Lorde, Carmen Maria Machado, Casey Plett, Sofia Samatar, Sami Schalk, Walt Whitman, and the New York School of poets.

For more on some of my reading interests, check out this interview of me by Casey the Canadian Lesbrarian. For more about my book Queering Mennonite Literature, read this article from the Goshen College Record.