I have been a member of the CSI English Department since 1998. I specialize in twentieth century American literature, with a focus on the mid-century avant-garde, counterculture movements, and psychoanalytic criticism. My overlapping interest in poetry, painting, and music is reflected in my various publications. I emphasize that same interdisciplinarity when I teach, especially in theme-based courses.
Degrees
University of California, Santa Barbara, 1994-1998, Ph.D. in English, June 1998.
University of California, Santa Barbara, 1992-1994, M.A. in English, June 1994.
Franklin and Marshall College, 1982-1986, B.A. cum laude in English, May 1986.
Scholarship and Publications
Books:
- Easy: A Hard Look at Soft Rock. Under contract with University of Iowa Press. Forthcoming 2025.
- It’s Just the Normal Noises: Marcus, Guralnick, No Depression, and the Mystery of Americana Music. Iowa City. University of Iowa Press, 2017.
- Moonchild (poetry chapbook). Kanona, NY: FootHills Publishing, 2013.
- Urban Pastoral: Natural Currents in the New York School. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010.
- Gary Snyder and the Pacific Rim: Creating Countercultural Community. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006.
Selected Articles and Essays:
- “Jazz Criticism and Liner Notes.” Jazz and American Literature. Ed. Michael Borshuk. New York: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming 2023.
- “Rooted Knowledge: Gary Snyder in the Academy.” The Beats and the Academy. Ed. Erik Mortensen and Tony Triglio. Clemson, SC: Clemson University Press. Forthcoming 2023.
- “‘Take It Easier’: Joanne Kyger in Bolinas.” Journal of Beat Studies vol. 8 (2020): 5-20.
- “‘You Ain’t Laughing, Are You?’ Humor, Misery, and the Replacements.” The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor. Ed. Nick Baxter-Moore and Thomas M. Kitts. New York: Routledge, 2019, pp. 195-202.
- “Some Versions of Urban Pastoral” (co-authored with Kevin R. McNamara). The Cambridge Companion to the City in Literature. Ed. Kevin R. McNamara. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 245-60.
- “Flying the Flannel: An Americana Salute to Creedence Clearwater Revival.” Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ed. Thomas M. Kitts. Lanham, MD.: Lexington Books, 2013, pp. 71-83.
- “Harmonic Convergence” (catalogue essay). Jane Freilicher. New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, March 2009.
- “Fun City: Kenneth Koch among Schoolchildren.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 51, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 223-62.
- “Fictions Dressed Like Water: Aqueous Imagery in the Poetry of Barbara Guest.” Jacket 28 (October 2005). http://jacketmagazine.com (18,571 words).
- “‘A World without Gravity’: The Urban Pastoral Spirituality of Jim Carroll and Kathleen Norris.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language vol. 47, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 213-52.
- “‘The Place Where Your Nature Meets Mine’: Diane di Prima in the West.” Journal X: A Journal in Culture and Criticism (Autumn 2003): 1-31.
- “Hip Americana: The Cultural Criticism of Greil Marcus.” Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies 27. Ed. Jack Salzman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 611-39.
- “New Windows on New York: The Urban Pastoral Vision of James Schuyler and Jane Freilicher.” Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture vol. 33, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 171-98.
- “Semiotic Shepherds: Gary Snyder, Frank O’Hara, and the Embodiment of an Urban Pastoral.” Contemporary Literature vol. 39, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 523-59.
