About
I am a Catholic deacon, a poet, and a retired English professor living in Corvallis, Oregon.
I grew up in Spokane, Washington and went to college at Gonzaga University in Spokane, then to graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle.
After receiving my Ph.D. in 1983, and teaching for four years at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, I taught for 34 years at Oregon State University in Corvallis. I retired in 2020.
Since I was ordained in 1997, I’ve served as a deacon at St. Mary’s in Corvallis, and I continue to serve at St. Mary’s in retirement. I also lead retreats and do spiritual direction, and I continue to write.
I’ve written fifteen books, including academic books, textbooks, books of personal essays, and three books of poetry. In 2016 Eerdman’s published a book I put together from pieces of my homilies, Light When It Comes: Trusting Joy, Facing Darkness, and Seeing God in Everything.
My wife and I have lived for many years on the edge of the university research forest north of Corvallis. She is the retired pastoral associate at St. Mary’s.
We have three children and three grandchildren.
This short video was made a few years before I retired from Oregon State.
- Deacon, Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (ordained 1997)
Professor of English, Oregon State University (1986-2020)
Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University (2020—present)
education
- M.A. and Ph.D. in English, University of Washington (1980,1983)
- B.A. in English, Gonzaga University (1977)
- M.A. in Theology, Mount Angel Seminary (1997)
several of my nonfiction books
- Light When It Comes: Trusting Joy, Facing Darkness, and Seeing God in Everything (Eerdmans: 2016)
- Teaching as Believing: Faith in the University (Baylor University Press: 2004)
- Edge Effects: Notes from an Oregon Forest (University of Iowa Press: 1993)
my books of poems
- You Never Know (Stephen F. Austin State University Press: 2018)
- The Next Thing Always Belongs (Airlie Press: 2011)
- My Problem with the Truth (Cloudbank Books: 2003)