I help writers discover and develop content, structure ideas, and express their thoughts in fluid, capable prose.
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Tutoring
I focus on a person’s unique interests as thresholds for writing practice. Perhaps a young person’s capacity to reason through hypothetical situations is growing by playing fantasy games. Their capacity to imagine and empathize emerges simultaneously. Tapping into this set of interests and passions, I use language arts games and creative writing exercises to develop the skills of an effective, independent writer.
Students meet with me once or twice a week to make steady progress, usually as frequently as their needs and goals require.
The academic and personal essay, nature journaling and memoir, creative writing portfolios and university application statements, textual analysis, research, and the stages of editing a finished document are all areas of my concern and attention.
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Writing
The Irish poet Robert Graves famously said that there is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said much the same thing. I help people orient themselves in the process of rewriting.
Rewriting is like practicing a piece of music. The musician explores the possibilities of expression by returning to difficult and demanding passages. Only, in the case of every writer the score must first be created, and then the challenging passages can be identified. Patience, attention to the creative impulse, and the development and honing of skill make this work achievable.
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Editing
The way you tell your story can make all the difference—a difference in whether your ideas can be heard and considered, a difference in how your purpose and intentions are perceived, a difference in whether your writing is sound, trustworthy, compelling.
Editing is much more than correcting punctuation. It is a deeper process of examining the ways in which a writer’s ideas and observations are coupled with varied kinds of sentences to create lucid, expressive prose. In the fullest sense, editing is not a grim practice of clipping and pruning ideas before they are formed on the page.
Editing is a continuation of discovery: it enables a writer to pay close attention to eureka moments that are inherent in any composition—moments which are the root of trial, experimentation, and improvisation that form the history and practice of essay writing.
About Me
I have taught writing and literature for over thirty years to people of all ages—from second graders to senior citizens—in a range of settings from college classrooms to kitchen counters and remote instruction. My college teaching experience includes Pennsylvania State University, Duquesne University, and Binghamton University.
I’m a member of the Connecticut River Poetry and Poetics seminar, an annual meeting that emerged from the Frost Place Advanced Poetry Seminar. My poetry has been published in Coal Hill Review, St. Katherine Review, Presence, Relief, and Poetry Salzburg Review.