The Recovering Academic features exclusive interviews, essays, and craft resources for writers. 

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Founding members get all this plus a signed copy of my memoir, an electronic version of my unpublished novel, and two free coaching sessions (a $200 value). 

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If you belong to the recovering academic community or know someone who has left academe, check out my tees or hoodies!

T-shirts with the logos "i ❤️ a recovering academic" and "RECOVERING ACADEMIC"

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Coaching and editing

Do you have a manuscript that you want to take to the next level? Or an idea for a project, but you don't know where to start? Let’s set up a free consultation to see if we’re a good fit for each other. Paying subscribers get a full coaching session free.

I specialize in literary memoir, but I also help clients with personal statements for graduate school and op-eds for popular and academic magazines.

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About me

I am a writer and award-winning teacher with 20 years of experience in publishing and editing. My mentor was Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner. My work has appeared in more than 40 magazines, including these.

My memoir Down from the Mountaintop: From Belief to Belonging was shortlisted for the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize. It is available on Amazon, at The University of Iowa Press, and at many other places where books are sold. 

I co-produced an oral history podcast, Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest, which you can hear on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Season 1, “Homecoming,” features stories from native Iowans who left the Midwest and then came back to stay. Season 2, “Immigration,” features stories from people who left their native countries to make a home in the Greater Midwest.

Logo by Mathew Kelly

I am also father to three fantastic kiddos, who sometimes humor me with backcountry adventures and help me plan each year’s garden. In the hours before breakfast, you can usually find me running the back roads in central Pennsylvania or pumping iron with the other early birds. 

Photos by Joshua Doležal

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A series on rebuilding a life and a writing practice after leaving academe.

People

Author of a memoir and a forthcoming poetry collection. Essays in Missouri Review, Kenyon Review, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.