���װ�ʿ

I went to Amherst College for undergrad, where I earned a B.A. in English and fine arts; then I got my MFA in creative writing from the Bennington Writing Seminars (a low-residency program like Hood’s MFA) and my Ph.D. in English from Western Michigan University.

About a month before I graduated from my Ph.D. program, I applied for a visiting assistant professor of English position at Hood. The department was looking for a poet who also specialized in American literature and could run a poetry reading series. A week before I defended my dissertation, I had an on-campus interview at Hood and was offered the position the very next day.

The day of my interview, as I was walking across campus to the dining hall with my future colleagues, I said to one of them, “This would be a lovely place for a low-residency MFA in Creative Writing.” Thus, the idea for the program was born. For the next 16 years, I dreamed about it and worked toward it until we finally launched the program last year.

Causa Sui, my third poetry collection, is in many ways a direct response to the second Trump administration, although the majority of it was written before the 2024 election. 

The second section of the book contains a number of 14-line sonnet-like poems that are structurally, thematically and tonally very similar to the 14-line sonnet-like poems in my second collection, Requiem with an Amulet in Its Beak. 

The third section, which was written shortly after the inauguration in January, contains a series of found poems taken from the text of Project 2025. Although the current administration has been and will continue to be disastrous for this country, it has been good for my writing, in that I’ve been able to channel my anger into something productive.

In their mission statement, Three Mile Harbor Press notes that they are “committed to publishing the best diverse work, with particular interest in finding LGBTQ, feminist and environmentally aware voices.” 

As a feminist, an LGBTQ ally and an environmentally aware poet, the press’s mission aligns perfectly with my personal values and with my vision for the book.

Actually, I have four official roles—educator, administrator, active poet and mother. Honestly, I haven’t figured out how I navigate them yet. It’s a lifelong process, I think.

It's important to know that ours is a low-residency program, which means that students are on campus for only 10 days out of year. The rest of the time, they work independently with a faculty mentor on their individual writing projects. This structure is ideal for working professionals who might not have the time to take in-person graduate courses during the year, and because it’s remote, students can be anywhere in the world while in a low-res program.

As part of CW 505: Literary Publishing, the amazingly talented students in our first cohort developed a new online literary journal, Pergola. We hope to open for submissions and launch our first issue soon!

Inspired by Professor Knapp's story? Ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn more about Hood College’s graduate programs, such as creative writing, by clicking .