I’m a professor of sociology at Middlebury College and a creative writer. In this interview, I talk about why I think creative non-fiction can be such an effective way to write about life and loss. And in this interview I talk about how I combine sociology and creative writing, their overlap and divergence.

I write fiction and creative non-fiction, flash, short stories and am finishing up a novel. I have two major projects in the works right now.

Blood and Guts, is a 45,000-word story collection about unruly bodies, human and animal. Blood and Guts combines fiction and memoir and blends traditional narrative with braided and lyrical forms, using vivid imagery and gritty realism to explore addiction, grief, memory, and survival among characters living at the margins. 

My novel Granite Valley unfolds through the alternating perspectives of a seasoned prison guard nearing retirement and the sociology professor teaching a class to the inmates under his watch — two experts circling each other, each certain the other doesn't fully understand the situation. Into this mix comes a charismatic inmate who insists on his innocence, an eager teaching assistant, and emotionally vulnerable social work intern. When the inmate escapes during class and a tragedy occurs, the professor and the guard find out how deeply they’ve misread their situations As the hidden machinations offstage finally surface, all the characters discover exactly what role they've been playing, and under whose direction, in the claustrophobic theater of a maximum-security prison.