Poet, book editor, friend to prisoners

Empathy and compassion are our greatest tools for understanding and loving ourselves and others. My journey to being more compassionate has led me to befriend several prisoners on Death Row and elsewhere, and to work with them on their creative writing, primarily poetry.

I edit books for BleakHouse Publishing, whose mission is to humanize the men and women caught in the carceral system.

I also collaborate with George T. Wilkerson, who has published a few books of essays and poetry and is one of my best critiquers, and with Phillip Vance Smith, II, whose writing illuminates the injustices of the system and who is a major player in the movement toward prison rehabilitation in North Carolina.

In the past, I’ve worn many hats: college English and humanities instructor, tutor, tutoring center manager, magazine editor, freelance writer, and more. Currently, I am president of Winston-Salem Writers and a host city coordinator for Poetry in Plain Sight. Feel free to read my writing or drop me a line!