He grew up in the mountainous state of Washington and earned his B.A. in Writing and Literature from George Fox University and his Ph.D. in English from Baylor University. His first book is Loving God’s Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature, and he and Jack Baker have a book forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky, An Education in the Virtues of Place: Wendell Berry and the University, that explores how Berry’s vision could shape a more healthy form of higher education, one that encourages students to lead placed lives.