Scholar Mine, an Ohio State Love Story, 2013, is my first memoir.  Ohio State University gave me the tools to bring the story to life. From 1985-2011, I worked in three academic departments while completing three degrees in English.  My dissertation, essentially about myself, explored how civil service workers with advanced degrees make sense of their low-level jobs in Ohio State's pecking order.  I taught a legion of survey courses and received awards for job performance and academic contributions.  Mere sidelines, though. The essence of the story is Jose, my beloved scholar.

Deeply personal, Scholar Mine unfolds against a sweep of vivid supporting characters, all toiling inside Ohio State's public yet very private spaces.  It's a geography united by tradition and protocol, divided by contested ideas and outside personalities.  A player in its own right, the university is our ballast, our source of sustenance and growth.  But it's also the site of betrayal for a man who strives to further its cause.  Scholar Mine aims to reveal both the good and the brutal in terms that are neither gratuitous nor timid.