Ph.D., University of Southern California, English Literature, 2008
Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies, University of Southern California, 2008
M.A., University of Southern California, English Literature, 2002
M.F.A., University of California-Irvine, English (Fiction), 1993
B.A., University of Pennsylvania, cum laude in English, with distinction, 1989
Degrees
Ph.D., University of Southern California, English Literature, 2008
Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies, University of Southern California, 2008
M.A., University of Southern California, English Literature, 2002
M.F.A., University of California-Irvine, English (Fiction), 1993
B.A., University of Pennsylvania, cum laude in English, with distinction, 1989
Areas of Interest
American Literature 1865-present
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Visual Narratives
Creative Writing
Courses Taught at Wake Forest
English 340 Girls Gone Wild: A Century of Misbehavior
English 338/WGS 377 The Queer Fantastic
English 325 Visual Narratives: Image, Sequence, Story, Desire
WGS 321 Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
English 302 Invert, Pervert, Bull Dagger, Queen: U.S. Queer Fiction in the 20th Century
English 302 Joan Didion and Edmund White: Personal/History
CRW 286 Short Story Workshop
English 150 Sexual Revolution!: Gender and Sexuality in the United States, 1950-1980
Selected Publications
Book
So Famous and So Gay: The Fabulous Potency of Truman Capote and Gertrude Stein. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Stray, novel mss. seeking publication. Excerpted in Santa Monica Review Spring 2025 and Fall 2021.
Articles
“Gertrude Stein, Opium Queen: Notes on an Unlikely Embrace,” Journal of Lesbian Studies 17.1 (2013): 7-24.
“Capote and the Trillings: Homophobia and Literary Culture at Mid-Century,” Twentieth-Century Literature 54.2 (2009): 129-165. Winner of the Andrew J. Kappel Prize for Best Article of the Year.
“Young, Effeminate, and Strange: Early Photographic Portraits of Truman Capote.” Studies in Gender and Sexuality 6.3 (2005): 293-326.
Book Chapters
“Broadly Queer and Specifically Gay: The Celebrity and Career of Gertrude Stein.” In Literary Careers in the Modern Era, eds. Guy Davidson and Nicola Evans. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015: 77-95.
“Down South in Peckerwood: Auntie Mame and Anti-Mom,” The Queer South on Screen, edited by Tison Pugh, 2020.
Short Stories
“Submatriculation,” Santa Monica Review (Spring 2025): 40-61.
“Treblinka Kitty,” Santa Monica Review (Fall 2021): 43-61.
“Best Friend,” short story, Best Gay Stories 2009. Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2010: 15-23.
“The Third Breast of Hilda Von Why,” short story, SPECS 1 (2008): 27–34. Nominated for Pushcart Prize, 2009.
“A Boy Abroad,” short story, The Loudest Voice. CA: Figueroa Press (2010): 111-119.
