I’m a writer, a former teacher, an ultimate frisbee player, and aspiring changer of things.

I know that last bit sounds a little self-important, and it is; but if you read my memoir, you’ll see why I put it down. I really do dream about Big Ideas and changing the world, even if I’ve not yet had a ton of luck at it. We’ll see how this book goes over.

I grew up in Massachusetts, before heading south, to the great state of North Carolina, for undergrad at Elon University, where I majored in English, planning at first to teach High School. Then I went to DC to do a Master’s in English, and I stayed for a good long while. I did my Master’s at George Washington, and then hopped straight into a PhD program at the University of Maryland. I never finished my PhD, but I had the extraordinary good fortune to get a lot of college-level teaching experience while I was at UMD. I love teaching, and it was my calling for years. I am always excited to help people learn to read closely, to write persuasively, and to think critically. I’ll probably end up back in the classroom at some point in the future, but for now it’s time to spend a while just working on my own writing. I’m back in Boston these days, and I’m turning toward figuring out what’s next in my life, after a very, very strange couple of years. (Again, the memoir will spell all that out.)

I come from a blended family, and I have two older sisters and a younger brother. Both parents are remarried, so there were a lot of parental influences and role models to work from when I was a kid. These days, I’m also an uncle, and I’m grateful to have gotten to know some great kids over the past few years.

I’m a little weird, as you’ll find out if you read my book. I’ve got a whole slew of psychological and neurological diagnoses, and I’m in a bit of a long-term argument with certain doctors about what all is going on. If diagnostic language helps you, I’ve been diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, OCD, GAD, and depression (which certain doctors have determined to be Bipolar Disorder I). Basically, I’m pretty weird and pretty emotionally intense, and I often struggle with impulse-control and nonverbal social cues. A lot of the time I’m a nervous wreck, and I definitely talk myself into trouble every so often. But I am most certainly both brilliant and intriguing, and (I’m told), a little too fond of bragging about said brilliance. I’m a work in progress.