Hi Everybody

To begin. I write both fiction and poetry (fiction being my official academic designation here at OSU). At the moment, I am working on a "poetic project" developing around my research of the history of anatomy theaters and medical dissection. This subject has acted as a kind of springboard, which has launched me into a (for me at least) complex navigation between using research and events as the basis for work, but not making the work "about" them per se. Needless to say, I like taking up medical terminology and using it in different contexts (the inner spaces of the body are named with such pretty words!). On the page, I am interested in space, how the body of the poem operates both on the page and aurally, how the visual shape comes to interact with the "map" of sound (I have recently been re-inspired by Ann Lauterbach's visit). At the moment, this is the work I am most excited about--I hope ultimately to turn this into a chapbook collection of poems. In terms of fiction, I am working on a few very short pieces that experiment with the ways in which changing syntax can change affect, and the ways we need to change language in order to write about trauma (or from a traumatized perspective). On a side note, I have also just written a story "about" gorillas. I am currently reading Ann Lauterbach's collection of essays ("The Night Sky") and a book by David Ohle called "Motorman." Also, some Amy Bender and Jane Austen, just for fun.