Publications

Books

• American Honey: A Field Guide to Resisting Temptation
• The Family Bible Devotional: Stories from the Gospels to Help Kids & Parents Love God & Love Others
• Between the Heron and the Moss: Poems
• The Family Bible Devotional: Stories from the Bible to Help Kids & Parents Engage & Love Scripture
• Pruning Burning Bushes: Poems
• The Valley of Achor: Essay
• The Body Is Not a Coffin: An Essay on Miscarriage
• Acquiesce

Articles and Essays, Online and In-Print

(I’m a regular contributor to the God Hears Her blog from Our Daily Bread as well as Root & Vine News. You can see all recent Root & Vine News posts from me here.)

• “The Wonders of Massaman Curry,” Rock & Sling (May 2022)
• “Shelf Life,” Brevity blog (February 2022)
• “Mothers’ Top Dresser Drawers,” Brevity Magazine (January 2022)
• Interview with Ashland University English Department Chair Hilary Donatini (November 16, 2021)
• “Do Not Fear, but Fear the Lord?”, Brethren Church blog reprint (September 29, 2020)
• “You Are Our Letters,” Brethren Church blog (June 12, 2020)
• “Ordinary Time,” Ascent (November 6, 2019)
• “Chameleons Everywhere: On Baptism, Identity, and Being 13,” The Evangelist (November 2019)
• “A Car to Drive,” Air: A Radio Anthology (spring 2019)
• “The Violence of the Given World,” Terrain.org, Winner of the 9th Annual Nonfiction Contest; Nominated for inclusion in 2020 Pushcart Anthology (February 3, 2019)
• “Rooted and Reaching: A Review of The Long Weeping by Jessie van Eerden,” River Teeth online (June 1, 2018)
• “Opportunities for Grace,” Our Daily Bread Easter edition introduction (spring 2018)
• “Not-My-Husband,” Ascent (November 2017). Listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2018
• “The Lord’s Name (in memory of Brian Doyle),” Awst Press (August 2017)
• “Miles To Go Before I Sleep,” Tiferet Journal (Winter 2017)
• Interview about “The Body Is Not a Coffin,” Under the Gum Tree (June 2, 2016)
• “The best reasons to attend writing conferences,” The Review Review (May 2016)
• “The Body Is Not a Coffin,” Under the Gum Tree (April 2016, Issue 19). Nominated for inclusion in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2017
• “Foxglove, Beebalm,” Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments (March 31, 2016)
• “I have made fire! The role of readers vs. the role of mentors,” Brevity blog (March 7, 2016)
• “Time to Get a Gun,” Windhover: A Journal of Christian Literature (February 2016)
• “Genotype,” Hippocampus Magazine (January 1, 2016)
• “Vulnerability on the Page: Mining Your Own Dark Corners,” The Review Review (November 9, 2015)
• “The Memoir inside the Essay Collection: Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth,” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies (Fall 2015, Volume 2.1)
• “Careful Intimacies,” Full Grown People (August 2015)
• “The Bride of Christ,” The Cresset (Spring 2015)
• “The Worst Soccer Mom,” The Butter
• “Natural Habitat,” Ascent
• “In Memoriam, Judith Kitchen: A Tribute,” The Humble Essayist
• The Unslanted Truth: a Conversation With Four Editors of Today’s Premier Creative Nonfiction Literary Magazines with The Review Review
• “Skipping Stones” brief essay on Beautiful Things at River Teeth
• “Honky-Tonk Bride” conversation about poetry and faith on Addie Zierman’s blog
• Interview with Jesse Turri on Unfolded podcast
• “Building Fires,” Rock & Sling (Volume 9.2, 2014).
• “Human Resources Training,” The Pinch (Volume 34:2, fall 2014). Listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2015.
• “The Dance: Dad’s Lead,” Full Grown People
• “Someone’s in the Kitchen,” Unfolded podcast
• Interview with Kate Hopper on Motherhood and Words
• “After the Storm: A Better Love Story,” The Good Men Project (previously appeared on this blog)
• “Field Guide to Resisting Temptation,” Brevity, Listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2014 and nominated for inclusion in the Pushcart anthology (also shared on The Good Men Project)
• “Going Out of Town,” The Mom Egg: VOX MOM Column
• “Underwater,” Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression (2013).
• “Planting Seeds,” The Evangelist (Publication of the Brethren Church, January 2013).
• “Use What Yo Daddy Gave You: On Poetry in Church,” Antler
• “Realizing Potential: An Ashland Alum Reflects on Her Journey from Student to Administrator to Author,” Accent Magazine
• “The Grateful Shrub,” Tweet Speak Poetry
• “Grounded: Engaging the Spiritual in Poetry,” Poets Quarterly
• “Country Boys, City Boys,” River Teeth (Volume 13.2) available through ProjectMUSE. Listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2013
• “Those Summers, These Days,” Ascent (December 2011) Listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2012; featured on Longreads.com.

Published Poems, Online and In-Print

• “The Name” and “Over Flyover Country,” Reformed Journal (September 2021).
• “Savasana,” Windhover (2019).
• “Anatomy of the Mother of God,” Whale Road Review (2018).
• “Eclipsed,” Whiskey Island (2017).
• “Of Thee I Sing,” Rattle: Poets Respond (July 24, 2016).
• “Blessed are the Meek,” Rock & Sling, 11.1 (Spring 2016).
• “Night Swim,” appeared in Every Day Poems January 9, 2014.
• “Like a Wet Nose on Your Cheek,” Ascent (October 2013).
• “‘Where Is Heaven?'” and “Sugar Snap Peas,” In Touch Magazine (November 2013).
• “Easter Flowers,” “No Trespassing,” and “Nothing,” The Common online feature (fall/winter 2013).
• Four poems from Pruning Burning Bushes reprinted in Exhale (September 2013).
• “Running,” Poetry East (Fall 2013).
• “Seasonal Work,” appeared in Every Day Poems April 1, 2013.
• “Rappelling,” Chautauqua Journal (2013).
• “Harvest Meal” and “Calling Hours,” Rock & Sling (2013).
• “Jesus and the Herd of Pigs,” The Common (2014).
• “Explaining Easter,” “Sunbathing,” “What Is a Miracle?” Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression (2013).
• “A Christmas Poem,” Christianity & Literature (forthcoming).
• “Rumble Strip,” The Cresset (Christmas 2012).
• “Picture Book,” Puerto del Sol (Winter 2012).
• “Making the Bed,” New Ohio Review (Fall 2012).
• “Creek Walk,” Verse Daily (August 12, 2012).
• “My Mother’s Kitchen,” Alimentum, Issue 13 (Winter 2012).
• “Casa Blanca Lily,” Poetry East, #71 (Fall 2011).
• “Sifted as Wheat,” Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry, Vol. 5:1 (2011).
• “Daylily,” r.kv.r.y (April 2011).
• “Cascade Valley,” Ascent (January 2011).
• “The Swale,” Floorboard Review, #1 (January 2011).
• “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” Vending Machine: Poems for Change (November 2010).
• “Stumps,” The Fourth River, Issue 7 (Winter 2010).
• “Junction,” Poetry for the Masses, Vol. 3, No. 2 (November 2010).
• “Honky-Tonk Bride,” Rock & Sling (online October 25, 2010).
• “Interference” and “Rain Dance,” Nimrod: International Journal of Prose and Poetry , Awards 32 (Fall/Winter 2010).
• “The ladies’ quilting club is out today,” Literary Mama (May 2010).
• “Angry,” Windhover: A Journal of Christian Literature (January 2010).
• “Hymn of Skin,” JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), Vol. 303, No. 9 (March 3, 2010).
• “Dent de Lion,” Christianity and Literature (June 2010).
• “The Peony: To the Ant”, Common Threads (2009).
• “Singing Birds,” The New Formalist, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2009).
• “Pruning Burning Bushes,” Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression, Vol. 2, No. 4 (2008).

Awards and Recognition:

• Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Artist Award Winner
• “Not-My-Husband,” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2018
• “The Body Is Not a Coffin,” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2017
• “The Body Is Not a Coffin,” nominated by Under the Gum Tree for a Pushcart Prize in 2016
• “Human Resources Training” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2015
• “Field Guide…” anthologized in Read Before You Write: A Workbook Anthology in Memoir, edited by Lisa Ohlen Harris, Hess Creek Publishing, 2016.
• “Field Guide…” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2014
• “Field Guide…” nominated by Brevity for a Pushcart Prize in 2013
• “Country Boys, City Boys” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2013
• “Those Summers, These Days” listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2012
• Poetry manuscript, Pruning Burning Bushes, one of five finalists for the 2012 T.S. Eliot Prize through Truman State University Press
• Chapbook manuscript, Against the Ground, one of five finalists for the 2010 Wick Poetry Chapbook Open Competition
• Poetry for the Masses nominated “Junction” for a Pushcart Prize in 2010
• Received a scholarship to attend the 2010 West Chester Poetry Conference
• Received a partial scholarship to attend the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar
• “The Angry Gardener” selected as honorable mention in the Akron Art Museum’s New Words 2009 Poetry Contest
• Poetry from Acquiesce nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009
• Nominated for a fellowship to the 2010 Breadloaf Writer’s Conference