Professor
English
Office
Willard-DiLoreto Hall
W401-05
Biography
After many wonderful years in Washington, DC working as a writer and editor for National Geographic and the Smithsonian, I returned to my native Connecticut to accept a position as a professor of nonfiction for the Creative Writing Minors at CCSU. In the last 15 years I've spearheaded the development of the Writing & Publishing Minor, supervised many community engagement projects, and have felt privileged to work in such an amazing job. In 2010 I won the CCSU Teaching Award; every term I hope to bring that same award-winning energy into my classroom. I remain an active writer of literary nonfiction and have published three books and many articles and essays since arriving to CCSU in 2007. My most recent title: A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens came out in 2023.
Education
Areas of Expertise
Literary nonfiction, biography, humor, personal essay, science, health
Publications, Research & Presentations
BOOKS
A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens, Entasis Press, 2023
At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces, co-authored with my son Donald Collins (Beacon Press, 2018)
American Idle: A Journey Through Our Sedentary Culture (Capitol Books, 2009)
My essays and features have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Cargo Literary, Out Magazine, LitHub and elsewhere.
As a book author I have toured the country as a guest author and speaker for a broad range of organizations and clients including Yale University, Cornell University, Boston University, Association of Writing Programs and others.