He was raised in the District of Columbia, where he graduated from the Federal City College and from the George Washington University, with a Ph.D.He taught at Howard University, San Jose State University, the University of California, Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University. He is the George and Barbara Kelly Professor of American Literature in the Pennsylvania State University.

He lives in Pennsylvania and California, where his wife, Anna Everett, who teaches at U.C. Santa Barbara.

Poetry

• Heat Strings
• Evacuation Routes, Score, 1994

Criticism

• (reprint)
• Writing between the Lines

Anthologies