He is the graduate program director and associate professor for the Creative Writing MFA Program at Emerson College. He has also taught at Mount Holyoke College, Columbia University, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He received his BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He also received an MFA degree from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
He has written for The New York Times Book Review, Smithsonian, Discover, Islands, Outside, The Boston Globe Magazine, Reader's Digest, New England Monthly, Orion, and The Massachusetts Review.