I was born outside Los Angeles, California, in 1958, the year the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. My first twenty plus years were spent in Southern California. My parents taught me, in many ways, the power of the written word. We made regular trips to the library and my bedroom was always full of books. In high school, my first authentic academic memory took place in a Shakespeare class. I was a senior and our class met in a dark basement classroom where our teacher played records of the Shakespeare plays we were reading. I found such inspiration in this, I knew then, that I wanted to become a writer.

Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles became my home for the next four years. I studied English there and loved every moment of it. Again, a great teacher, Professor Fay, gave me an oral final exam one semester at the end of our Modern American Poetry class. I studied like mad and when I sat before her for the exam, she asked me "How has this class helped you to live better?" That question haunts me still and I often ask it of my students.

After graduating from LMU, I taught high school English for two years before attending graduate school at the University of Notre Dame. I studied there for three years and taught in Notre Dame's Freshmen Writing Program for several years after that. From 1995 to 2000, I did counseling and organized reading and writing groups at the Indiana State Prison. This was a profoundly formative experience.

"They Hang From Thick Wooden Pegs" published in "Solo Café 2" from Solo Press, Carpinteria, California, Elizabeth Carmo and Kevin Patrick Sullivan, Editors, 2007

"When Words Fail" and "The Poet During War" published in "Word is Bond: A Journal of Urban Poetry and Prose" from Unblind Publications, Seattle, WA, Aaron Counts, Kory Kumasaka, Editors, 2005

"Buddha Breathes" published in "Poetic Voices Without Borders: Anthology" from Gival Press, Arlington, VA, Robert Giron, Editor, June 2005

"The Poet During War" published in "Out of Line" Trenton, Ohio, Sam Longmire, Editor, 2005

"the most important word" published in D.C. Poets Against the War: Anthology from Argonne House Press, Washington, D.C., Sarah Browning, Michele Eliot, Danny Rose, Editors, 2004

"A Man Playing the Flute from a Cliff above the Pacific" published in "Sojourners" Washington, D.C. Rose Berger, Editor, Summer, 2003

Where Joy and Sorrow Meet, Co-Authored with Nicholas Ayo, James Flanagan, Josephine Ford, Includes Fourteen Poems by Joseph Ross, published by Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1998