I seek to dismantle conventional methods and systems in order to rebuild with moments of delight.
I am a writer, poet, and teacher in northern Illinois with a dual MFA in creative nonfiction and poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. I participate in the Casual Union of Working Poets at Poetry Forge and appear at events across Chicagoland with the Chicago poetry collective Poems While You Wait. I have completed two collections of poems: DOMESTIC VIOLATIONS is published as a limited-edition artist book, and ONE MORE HOUR is out and about visiting various readers at small publishers, waiting patiently to find a home. Meanwhile, I have returned to a novel-in-progress set in the Driftless Area in Wisconsin.
My creative work has been nominated for two Pushcarts (2021) by Press 53 and Waterwheel Review. Additional work appears in LitBop, Willow Review and in the exhibit “Call with Information” (2015) at team gallery, inc., New York, NY (in collaboration with the visual artist Suzanne McClelland, relation).
I teach creative writing and rhetoric at College of Lake County (Grayslake, IL). I worked as a tutor for athletes preparing for NCAA recruitment through the Beyond Sports Foundation, served two years on the board of the Stories Matter Foundation (StoryStudio Chicago, Chicago Review of Books, and Chicago Stories Project), and served thirteen years on the board of the Evanston In-School Music Association, an organization that has brought live music performances to over 8000 elementary students twice a year for over fifty years.
Contact: hmcc8916 [at] gmail [dot] com