Author, Poet, Historian
About Me
I was born and raised in suburban Connecticut, where I spent far too much time lost in the local history section of my hometown library, digging through regimental histories and first-person accounts of Civil War veterans. For better or worse, I was "that Civil War kid" from an early age. I attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in History and a nasty hangover, moved back to Connecticut, worked at a hedge fund, then jumped ship and moved to Colorado to be a writer. I completed my M.F.A. in Writing & Poetics at Naropa University in 2008 to the sound of bagpipes and bells. Now I work as a procurement specialist for an electronics company. In 2010, I released my first book, Jerusalem Plank Road, a collection of poetry inspired by the Petersburg Campaign of the Civil War, through Durga Press. I am currently an associate editor for Irish in the American Civil War.
My forthcoming novel, Year of Crows, is the fictional dual memoir of two Irish immigrants--a cross-dressing thief called Danny McGorry and an Irish Traveller/New York street urchin named Tobey Doherty. The book follows the first year of their enlistment in the 25th New York Infantry during the American Civil War. I am currently working on a sequel, a non-fiction project about reformatory inmates who served in the Civil War, and a collection of "collage poems" weaving together an assortment of 19th century texts. I also have about 15 years' experience doing genealogy research, specializing in material related to the Civil War era.
I live in Indianapolis, Indiana with my wife Kris, three boys, three frogs, and an incalculable quantity of crickets.
My forthcoming novel, Year of Crows, is the fictional dual memoir of two Irish immigrants--a cross-dressing thief called Danny McGorry and an Irish Traveller/New York street urchin named Tobey Doherty. The book follows the first year of their enlistment in the 25th New York Infantry during the American Civil War. I am currently working on a sequel, a non-fiction project about reformatory inmates who served in the Civil War, and a collection of "collage poems" weaving together an assortment of 19th century texts. I also have about 15 years' experience doing genealogy research, specializing in material related to the Civil War era.
I live in Indianapolis, Indiana with my wife Kris, three boys, three frogs, and an incalculable quantity of crickets.