Winner of 2026 John Burroughs Nature Essay Award

and

2025 Georgia Review Prose Prize for “Phantom Pains”

(Read the essay.)

I write and teach about landscape and resilience.

We express our understandings of nature through art, literature, science, and the landscapes we call home. I study these forms of expression for what they reveal—about what we believe, how we love and how we imagine, and why we struggle to understand that we, too, are part of the nature we grieve.

Through teaching, writing, and outreach,
I explore natural history, pursue hope, and seek healing.

 RECENT & UPCOMING EVENTS

June 11, 2026
FORUM on Ken Burns’ film, “HENRY DAVID THOREAU”: Sponsored by the Thoreau Society
View film selections & discuss with scholars featured in the film: Rebecca Kneale Gould, Rochelle L. Johnson, and Elise Lemire
Learn more here.

June 14, 2026
AWARDING of the 2026 THOREAU PRIZE IN LITERARY NATURE WRITING: HONORING ROSS GAY
Award Committee Chair, Thoreau Prize Committee
Register for the event here.

July 26-August 1, 2026
WRITING OURSELVES THROUGH THOREAU: A WORKSHOP IN CREATIVE NONFICTION & MEMOIR
Workshop Leader, Monson Arts Center, Monson, Maine
Register here: Monson Arts Summer Workshops

Summer 2026
THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY OF EMERSON’S NATURE
Teaching Faculty, Recipient of the 2026 Robert Frost Chair of Literature, Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English

February 27-March 1, 2026
THE BODY AS GROUND IN AN AGE OF ATTENTION
Workshop Leader, Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English Winter Institute
Bread Loaf Winter Institute

October 3-5, 2025
INVITED PARTICIPANT at EXPANDING CIRCLES: TRANSCENDENTALISM’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Symposium Hosted by the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University
Read a synopsis of the symposium here.

September 8, 2025
RECIPIENT of the OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN THE HUMANITIES AWARD from the Idaho Humanities Council
Read the award annoucement here: idahohumanities.org/programs/outstanding-achievement-awards/

Summer 2025
WRITING THE BODY IN PLACE and THOREAU’S WALDEN: ON MATTER, NATURE, and MEANING
Teaching Faculty, Bread Loaf School of English