After completing a BA in Modern Literature at UC Santa Cruz in 2000, I headed to France where I studied language and culture at the Sorbonne Paris III. Having already worked on Proust, and having minored in art history, my time in Paris was a challenging and exciting period of discovery and affirmation. In 2003 I headed to Montpellier in southern France where I completed a Licence in modern French and comparative literature then a Maitrise in the same field. I wrote my memoire on Paul Bourget and the French Decadence.
My passion for French literature is deeply rooted in the nineteenth century, particularly in the 1870s, 80s and 90s. From Rimbaud and Lautreamont to Mallarme and Claudel, my deepest love will always be for poetry. My academic interests, however, are directed more toward "les hommes de lettres" such as Bourget and Barres as well as the generation of Gide, Valery and Louys. I am fascinated by Bourget's notion of "l'intoxiaction litteraire" and the pessimism of the parisian dandys of the 1880s.
Apart from my studies, I have also worked as a music and arts journalist for the San Diego Reader. Over a period of several years, I maintained a weekly column covering San Diego's alternative music scene. This column then turned into a Euro Scene page where I covered the punk rock scene in Prague as well as music and cultural events in Paris. In 2000, just after completing my BA at UCSC, I self-published my first novel, "The Last Wall," and am currently editing my thrid book. My experiences as a novelist and journalist have greatly informed my literary interpretation.
