About

I am the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Mistakes with Strangers (Seven Kitchens Press, 2014), Shift (Seven Kitchens Press, 2010), The Moon of Books (Ultima Obscura Press, 2000), and The Unknown Country (State Street Press, 1992). A recipient of three Pennsylvania Council of the Arts fellowships, I have published poems most recently in Assaracus, Field, Mid-American Review, Prairie Schooner, Superstition Review, and Tupelo Quarterly. My essays have appeared in At Length, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review Online, and Tupelo Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them and Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Nonfiction.

I’ve taught at the University of Pittsburgh since 1987, first as a Teaching Assistant, then as Part-Time Faculty, then as a full-time Lecturer. For many years I managed the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, bringing from 6 to 13 well-known writers each year to campus for free readings and talks. In 2011 I was promoted to Senior Lecturer and became the Assistant Director of the Writing Program. I specialize in teaching creative writing, but I’ve also taught in Pitt’s Composition and Literature programs. For many years I worked as a writer-in-residence for the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, partnering with local secondary school teachers in summer workshops as well as inventing stand alone visits to local schools. I’ve taught classes at Western Penitentiary, at the Ellis School, and in the community through the Carnegie Museum School and the Carnegie Library.

In 2008, I received the Tina and David Bellet Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award for my teaching at Pitt.

If you’re interested in inviting me to read, speak, or teach, please email me at oaks@pitt.edu.

Or follow me on Twitter: @inhumandrag