Complex sentence: He left graduate school to work a variety of jobs--editorial assistant, librarian, and freelance journalist among them--and complete his first book, after which he taught part-time at N.C. State University and UNC-Greensboro.
Split into simpler sentences: He left graduate school to work a variety of jobs--editorial assistant, librarian, and freelance journalist among them--while he completed his first book. After it was published, he taught part-time at N.C. State University and UNC-Greensboro.