He received an A.B. in philosophy from Saint Louis University, and an M.A. in English from Northwestern University, and did additional graduate work in English at Northwestern. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award from Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies in 1999-2000, and in 2005 he was named to the ASG Faculty Honor Roll. He has taught a wide range of courses, including first-year seminars, Reading and Writing Fiction, Literary Editing, Modes of Writing, and Intermediate Composition. He was a fiction editor at StoryQuarterly from 1998 until 2007 (and Co-Editor in 2004), has written many reviews of fiction, biography, and philosophy for Booklist, and is currently doing research on postcolonialism and Irish writing.