scholarly activity

Graduate Assistantship (GA), Social Media Team Assistant/Marketing Assistant
July 2023 to March 2024
Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing.
Duties included posting to social media, graphic design, copywriting, and proofreading. Supported recruiting and marketing efforts through online research, compiling lists, and working with spreadsheets. In conjunction with the Naslund-Mann School staff, I worked to broaden the program’s social media reach and to help with marketing and recruiting.

Post-Graduate Residency Assistant (PGRA)
Fall 2020
Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing.
Traditionally, a PGRA assists in the office, records lectures, escorts guests or prospective students, participates in a workshop, and so on. In 2020, due to coronavirus restrictions, Spalding’s on-campus residency was a virtual event. PGRA duties consisted of starting and ending Zoom-based meetings, providing real-time technical support if/as needed, recording meetings, capturing chat sessions, and completing other duties as assigned.

Southern Festival of Books: Author Host
October 2017
Nashville, Tennessee
I hosted an author session for Andrew Farah and his biography, Hemingway’s Brain.

Southern Festival of Books: Hospitality Volunteer
October 2017
Nashville, Tennessee
I spent a day at the festival volunteering to help authors as they arrived to, and departed from, the event.

Southern Festival of Books: Author Host
October 2016
Nashville, Tennessee
I hosted an author session for Tim Champlin and his biography, The Wild West of Louis L’Amour.

MTSU Write Lecture
September 2016
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
I gave a lecture entitled, “Living a Proactive Literary Life” at the Write creative writing conference, located at Middle Tennessee State University.

Chattanooga Writers’ Guild Panel Discussion
May 2016
Chattanooga, Tennessee
I participated in an editorial panel discussion on publishing strategies.

Panel: The Public Service Side of the Book Business.
October 2014
Nashville, Tennessee
I served on this panel at the 2014 Southern Festival of Books with Tennessee Poet Laureate Margaret Britton Vaughn, award-winning poet Bill Brown, and Southern Novelist River Jordan.

The Pensters Writing Group Presentation
March 2014
Fairhope, Alabama
I traveled to Fairhope in 2014 to give a presentation to the Pensters Writing Group on the work we were doing at 2nd & Church.

Chattanooga Writers’ Guild Presentation
October 2012
Chattanooga, Tennessee
I gave a presentation to the guild’s membership during their “Evening with an Editor” event.

Chattanooga Writers’ Guild Panel Discussion
May 2012
Chattanooga, Tennessee
I participated in a panel discussion with area editors and publishers on the state of publishing.

Panel Discussions
Coordinated with area writers, editors, and literary agents (panelists) to present the following Writer’s Loft panels, each open to the public and held at area bookstores:

• Getting Published: From Manuscript to Book (November 2003)

• A Literary Oxymoron: Making Money Making Fiction (March 2004)

• Breaking In: Working on Your Lucky Break (October 2004)

• To Agent or Not to Agent (January 2005)

Creative Writing Workshops
Coordinated with area writers to offer the following Writer’s Loft workshops:

• Common Errors of the Novice Writer

• Enjoying the Puzzle: Writing Poetry

• Critical Reading to Learn Writing Skills

• A Guide to Self-Publication

• Screenwriting for the Movies

• Creating Your Novel

• Short Story and Novel Feedback

• How to Sell Your Novel

• Creative Process for The Memoir

• Follow the Golden Thread from The Triggering Town

• How to Become a Published Author

• Poet’s Life, a Clue to the Poem

• Putting the Creative in Nonfiction

• Text as Mentor

• The Elements of Fiction and Their Use in Crafting

• The Narrative Line in the Short Story: Methodology

Creative Writing Lectures
Coordinated with area writers to offer the following Writer’s Loft lectures:

• A World in Every Word: Metaphor and Poetic Gravity

• Beyond the First Draft: Going Deeper

• Out of Fear

• Plot & Fiction

• The Architecture of Fiction

• The Fundamentals of Fiction

• The Premise from Which All Things Dangle

• The Living Rocks: Poetic Consciousness

• Writing that First Novel