Before starting my PhD, I received an MFA in creative writing at the University of Notre Dame with a focus in poetry. My poetry tends toward the experimental, and I am more interested in sound and rhythm, the lyricism, than I am in cohesive narratives or meanings. My favorite poets and influences are Susan Howe, Lisa Robertson, and Caryl Pagel. The landscape of northern Indiana, particularly the reclaimed marshlands, and my family history within the state are also major influences.

The MFA thesis I finished at Notre Dame, entitled Huckleberry Queen, is a collection of poems about the titular character, a real-life legend from the Walkerton, Indiana, area in the 1870s and 1880s. These poems explore splintered narratives, ideas of early ecological feminism, and themes of resurrection and ruin.

My chapbook, Rhabdomantics, is a sound-oriented collection about environmental disaster (in this case, the dredging of wetlands), memory, and media — and how these things haunt us and decay us.

You can also find some of my poems online, including “The River Woodlawn” (at Storm Cellar) and “rhabdomancy” and “we are in the business of undoing” (at Spork).