I’m a full-time professor in the English Department at Polk State College in Lakeland, Florida.
I graduated with a B.A. from New College, Sarasota, in French and Russian. My M.A. is in Fiction Writing/Teaching of Writing from Columbia College, Chicago, where I tutored one-on-one and taught Fiction Writing Workshop I as an adjunct for three years.
The first class I ever taught was Research and Writing at John Marshall Law School in downtown Chicago in 1987. I then went on to teach writing at National-Louis University in Chicago. I have been actively employed as a college professor practically continually ever since; I have been employed as a full-time tenure-track professor at Polk State College since 2008.
At Polk State College, I teach English Composition (ENC 1101) and Introduction to Literature (LIT 1000) and Honors Introduction to Literature (Lit 1000 H).
I also advise the PSC Creative Writing Club, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary on campus this year.
I also have a J.D. degree summa cum laude from Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, Florida. (I have a Florida law license which has been in inactive status for quite a few years, and I can’t practice law or give legal advice due to being inactive.) I worked as a self-employed attorney in the Chicago area while attending graduate school to obtain my Master’s degree and while working as an adjunct English professor.
From 1992 through 2009, I co-authored/co-edited with Sol Gutstein of Chicago a successful two-volume legal reference book with annual updates entitled Illinois Real Estate Guide for West Publishing (now Reuters).
