So I guess for this bio, I should maybe tell you where I was born (Brazil, Indiana) ((admit it...you're envious)), and then how I came to be teaching on this campus. After undergrad, I swore I was done with school for-EVAH! I did all kinds of stuff. Worked in a record store, sold radio advertising, edited an arts magazine in Indianapolis, interviewed rock bands, dabbled in public relations, lived in France. Oh, and eventually went crawling back to school. I love writing and teaching writing and reading writing and talking about writing and interacting with students about their writing. I especially relish it when a student is brilliant on the page, but they aren't aware of it, and I get to point out to them exactly why. (Sometimes they need to be convinced.)

Teaching Creative Writing is a stupendous career (even if the grading marathons are mind-bending) and my favorite thing is when student writers are extremely engaged in the workshops. It's just cool. In 2016, I created a class called Trauma Writing. SO many of my students wrote about their personal trauma in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, I thought, "Hmmm. Wonder if people would sign up for a class just about trauma." They did. It's intense, for the students and for me. But good-intense. 

When I started teaching at UIUC in 1998, I was trying to resurface from some jarring life circumstances, and in this English Department I became a thriving person again. I figured out how fortunate I was to have a bunch of noxious junk in my rearview mirror. And then I became good friends with a co-worker who had a blog. In the blog comments section I met...wait for it...a guy I'd be marrying a couple years down the road. So yeah, U of I? Glad I landed here.