I tell stories from the Rust Belt, where I teach my students to do the same. My articles and essays have been published by The Washington Post, Belt, River Teeth, The Christian Science Monitor and Cleveland Magazine. I wrote a book about medical students and edited an anthology about my hometown, Youngstown, Ohio, the city that captivated Bruce Springsteen. I’ve reported on rural health and the Mahoning River for Ideastream Public Media — and won Edward R. Murrow Awards for my coverage. I’ve also researched the digital evolution of storytelling. (See my work in Literary Journalism Studies, Journalism and in publications of the Reynolds Journalism Institute.) For Bloomsbury, I’ve co-edited a new anthology of the literary journalism of the digital age — look for it in May 2024. During the academic year, you can find me at Kent State University’s School of Media and Journalism, trying to live up to the Aristotle quote above.