Biography
I am a novelist and Associate Professor of English, teaching undergraduate creative writing, MFA fiction workshops, and MFA literature seminars.
Research Interests
I have written four critically acclaimed novels. My debut, A Partial History of Lost Causes, was the winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, the Northern California Book Award for Fiction, a Whiting Writers' Award, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award, and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction. My second book, Cartwheel, was the winner of the Housatonic Book Award fiction and was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. My third novel, The Spectators, earned recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and my most recent novel, The Last Language, was a finalist for the Writers League of Texas Book Award. My writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Lapham's Quarterly, American Short Fiction, and The Wall Street Journal. I am currently at work on my fifth novel.