Artist Statement

I trust in the healing power of narrative. Whether I’m writing memoir, personal essays, or literary criticism, I uncover the tales that are hidden or neglected. I believe that when we tell our stories, we discover our selves, and that this is how we claim our place in the world. I write to explore the connections between my own individual narrative and our broader shared literary tradition. We tell our stories because they fill a need.

My creative writing finds moments of insight in the unlikeliest places. After two decades teaching American and African-American literature, my imagination has been ignited by countless moments where my own experience appears in some unexpected character, or scene, or line. When this happens, a story taps me on the shoulder, begging to be told. I am inspired by the connection, and this is where my narrative begins. So I write: about how Moby Dick helped me grieve my younger brother’s death; why Hester Prynne offers me both solace and antagonism in her model of motherhood; and what the Invisible Man can teach me about the risks of self-invention.

I am currently writing about the secret history of my childhood home.