Awards & Fellowships

2011

  • Finalist, Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry for Smite & Spoon
  • Pushcart Nomination and Sundress Best of the Net Nomination for “Füße: Umlauts, Eszetts, A Step” from StepAway Magazine
  • Pushcart Nomination for “At the Academy of Taxidermy Mirram Keeps a Secret” from OCHO
  • Longlist, Montreal International Poetry Prize

2010

  • Semi-finalist, the DeNovo Award, C&R Press for The Erotic Postulate
  • Pushcart Nomination and Sundress Best of the Net Nomination for “The Allentown Aubades” from Blue Fifth Review
  • Pushcart Nomination for “In Pursuit of a More Perfect Armor” from Poets & Artists (O&S)
  • Pushcart Nomination for “Homography” from OCHO

2009

  • Finalist, Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize for Skin Shift
  • Finalist, Memorius Art Song Contest to work with composer Randall West
  • Semi-finalist, The Akron Poetry Prize, The University of Akron Press for The Erotic Postulate
  • Pushcart Nomination for “In the Shadow City…” from Hobble Creek Review

2008

  • Finalist (top five), New Issues Poetry Prize, New Issues Poetry & Prose for Skin Shift
  • Finalist, Poetry Society of America New York Chapbook Fellowship for Xaymaca: An Island Sheaf
  • Finalist, New Michigan Press/DIAGRAM Chapbook Competition for Specular Reflection
  • Finalist, Keystone Chapbook Prize for Keystone Effect
  • Finalist, Robin Becker Chapbook Prize for Platos de Sal
  • Semi-finalist, Walt Whitman Award, Academy of American Poets for The Erotic Postulate
  • Semi-finalist, Tupelo Press Snowbound Chapbook Prize for Specular Reflection
  • Pushcart Nomination for “Somersault Precedes Transformation” from Poets & Artists (O&S)
  • Pushcart Nomination for “Mothers Eating Other Mothers’ Young” from Center

2007

  • Winner, Beauty/Truth Press 2007 Chapbook Competition for Narcissus Resists
  • Finalist, Keystone Chapbook Competition for Platos de Sal
  • Runner-up, Frank O’Hara Award Chapbook Competition for Platos de Sal
  • Also Notable, a top five manuscript for “prowess in composition and daring originality,” Caketrain Chapbook Competition for Narcissus Resists

2006

  • Winner, Spire Press Spring 2006 Chapbook Award for Pear Slip
  • Semi-finalist, Walt Whitman Award, Academy of American Poets for The Erotic Postulate
  • Fourth place, the Frank O’Hara Award Chapbook Competition for Pear Slip

2005

  • Best New Poets 2005: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers
  • Finalist, National Poetry Series Open Competition for The Erotic Postulate
  • Finalist, New Michigan Press/DIAGRAM Chapbook Competition for Pear Slip
  • Semi-finalist, Frank O’Hara Award Chapbook Competition for Narcissus Resists

2004

  • The Hopwood Award for Poetry, Graduate Division, and The Helen S. and John Wagner Prize, The Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Contest at The University of Michigan, awarded for the manuscript The Erotic Postulate
  • The Kay Deeter Award, awarded annually by the editors of the journal Fine Madness
  • Finalist, Slapering Hol Chapbook Competition for Pear Slip
  • Pushcart Nomination for “How to Write, How Not to Write About Pears” from Fine Madness

2002-2003

  • Colby Fellowship, The University of Michigan.

2000

  • Summer Fellow, The Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets at The Stadler Center for Poetry, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
  • Summa Cum Laude with Highest Honors in English for Senior Honors Thesis: Empire of Light: History and Art in the Poetry of Derek Walcott, Muhlenberg College
  • The Morris S. Hoats Award, Muhlenberg College, for a senior who has shown the greatest interest in and application of literature and the cultivation of a literary mind.
  • The Wallace A. Ries ’54 Award, Muhlenberg College, for a senior who has contributed to College life through creativity, artistic vision and spirit.
  • Phi Beta Kappa