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Conceived in Chyenne, Wyoming, I was born and raised in Colorado. Growing up, I enjoyed skiing with my older brother and camping year-round as a Boy Scout in Troop 123. During summer months, my mom took me and my siblings to the Arvada Public Library every week to browse at our leisure and check out books at our pleasure. Peak moments in high school: running cross-country and performing “Who’s on First” with Tim Ziegler in the school talent show. After high school, I built garage doors, dropped out of college (twice), led wilderness trips, fell in love, and worked as a cook at a camp. After graduating from college, I married Amy Brown. We went to grad school and taught in Japan.

From 1992 to 2022, Amy and I taught at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, a small Arkansas town bordered on the south and east by rice fields and on the north and west by pine trees and the Ouachita Mountains. In this place, we raised two children, Joseph and Will. I taught courses in British literature, world literature, creative non-fiction, film and faith, and English composition. A favorite class was a Freshman Composition course in which lively, brave, and kind students read, discussed, and wrote about E.B. White’s The Points of My Compass, Augustine’s Confessions, and Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood. During my teaching career, a big surprise was discovering how little I knew about English syntax and then (another surprise!) how much I would enjoy teaching it. Over the years as a faculty member, I developed core curricula and advocated for the liberal arts. For several years, I directed the campus Pew Younger Scholars program. For 16 years at Ouachita, I chaired the Department of Language and Literature.

At ��ɬֱ�� since 2022, I teach Core 100, English 101, and English 380.