Director and Founder

• The San Juan Summer Workshops, Ouray, CO, 2000-2007

Case Storyteller

• Texas Regional Public Defenders Office for Capital Cases, 2009-present

Publications

• Study in Self-Defense." Brevity (forthcoming September 2019).
• "No Men Were Harmed in the Making of 78/52." Hotel Amerika (Spring 2019): 203-209.
• "Brace Yourself." Pushcart Prize Anthology: Best of the Small Presses XLIX. Editor: Bill Henderson. Wainscott, New York: Puschcart Press, 485-492.
• "Target." Able Muse 24 (Fall 2017): 79-81. Winner of the 2017 Able Muse Fiction Award.
• "Heat." Sweet 10.2 (Winter 2018): https://sweetlit.wordpress.com/.
• "Running." Sweet 10.2 (Winter 2018): https://sweetlit.wordpress.com/.
• "Remote Control." under the gum tree 6.4 (October 2017): 44-51. Listed at "notable essay" in Best American Essays, 2018.
• "Brace Yourself." Prime Number Magazine Issue 113 (Fall 2017) www.press53.com/issue-113-oct-dec-2017/. Winner of a 2018 Pushcart Prize.
• "We Aren't Killers; They Are." The Rumpus (May 20, 2017): www.therumpus.net/2017/05/the-saturday-rumpus-essay-we-arent-killers-they-are/.
• "On Forgiving." Reprinted in Donna Walker-Nixon, et. al. Her Texas: Story, Image, Poem & Song. Austin, Texas: Wings Press, 2015. 96-103.
• "Writing for Life: How Narrative Law Is Transforming Death Penalty Cases in Texas." Creative Nonfiction 52 (Summer 2014): 8-11.
• "The Fires We Can't Control." Reprinted in Literature: A Pocket Anthology (Sixth Edition). Edited by R.S. Gwynn. New York: Penguin/Longman, 2014: 565-577.
• "Planting the Seed: A Roundtable Discussion on Death Penalty Narratives." With
• Jessica Blank, Pamela Colloff, David R. Dow, Anthony Graves, Zachary Martin, and Leslie Jill Patterson." Gulf Coast 26.2 (Spring 2014): 124-153.
• "Catch and Release" (Finalist for the Machigonne Fiction Contest). The New Guard 3 (Spring 2014): 155-71.

• "10 Things We Learned about Writing Nonfiction from Alissa Quart, a Journalist 'Outsider.'" Essay Daily (November 11, 2013). http://essaydaily.blogspot.com/2013/11/10-things-we-learned-about-writing.html.
• "Mirage." Baltimore Review 3 (Fall 2013): 45-51.
• "Smoking with Leslie Jill Patterson." Interview in Smokelong Quarterly 40 (June 2013). http://www.smokelong.com/interview/LesliePatterson40.asp.
• "What Manner of Triumph." Smokelong Quarterly 40 (June 2013). Also the featured story at Smokelong Quarterly (http://www.smokelong.com/flash/lesliepatterson40q.asp), week of May 13, 2013.
• "Gridlock." Earth's Daughters 82 (Spring 2013): 10-11.
• "We Know the Drill." In Bring the Noise: The Best Pop Culture Essays from Barrelhouse Magazine. Edited by Tom McAllister. Washington, D.C.: Barrelhouse Books, 2013. 123-38.
• "The Landslide of Trouble." Grist 6 (Spring 2013): 84-93.
• "The Sweet Spot Between Means and Hardship." Meatpaper 18 (Summer 2012): 13.
• "Capital Punishment: Righteous Anger or Murderous Revenge? A Conversation with Thomas Cahill, David Dow, and Robert Elder." Creative Nonfiction 43 (Winter 2012): 68-72.
• “The Fires We Can't Control.” Colorado Review 36.2 (Summer 2009): 47-56.
• “Miracles Are Never the Hand We Hope For.” Spoon River Poetry Review XXXIV, Number 1 (Winter/Spring 2009): 37.
• “Call Waiting.” Quiddity Vol. 2.1(Spring 2009): 10.
• “He Travels on Business.”  Winner of the Meridian postcard prize competition. Released at AWP in Chicago, February 2009.
• “Occupation.” Cave Wall No. 5 (Spring 2009): 52-53.
• “Any Minute.”  In Descant Fifty Years: The Literary Journal of TCU.  Edited by David Kuhne.  Fort Worth: Texas Christian UP, 2008: 134-147.
• “The Break-In.” Texas Monthly (August 2008):  64, 66, 68.
• “Fear Is a Road It's Not Safe to Travel.” Fourth River 4 (Autumn 2007): 197-211.
• “A Necessary Imagination: An Interview with Bonnie Rough.”  Iron Horse Literary Review 8.2 (Spring 2007):  49-63.
• “A Guilty Woman.” The Rambler 4.1 (Jan/Feb 2007):  49-51.
• “When Marriage Is a Tomb Where Silence Dwells.” Image: Art, Faith, Mystery 52 (Winter 2007): 86-101.
• “Our Bodies Do Not Fit Us.” The Carolina Quarterly 58.1 (Fall 2006):  6-11. 
• “When the Ground Moves.” Thema 18.3 (Autumn 2006): 7-17.
• “The Work of a Farrier Is an Unforgiving Business.”  Concho River Review XX.1 (Spring 2006):  36-42.
• “A Gold Ring For Life.” HerStory: What I Learned in My Bathtub . . . and More True Stories on Life, Love, And Other Inconveniences. Ed. Indi Zeleny. New York: Adams Media, 2005.  114-20.
• “Road Signs.” Writing on the Wind:  An Anthology of West Texas Women Writers.  Ed. Lou Halsell Rodenberger, Laura Payne Butler, and Jacqueline Kolosov.  Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech UP, 2005.  232-46.
• “Road Signs.” Black Ridge Review 2 (Spring 2004): 81-96.
• “You Tell Me Science Explains All Miracles,” “Family Struck by Lightning in Rocky Mountain National Park,” “The White Doggie: Main Street, Blackjack, Texas,” and “He Finds Her Farewell Taped to the Door.” CCTE Studies LXIX (2004): 66, 67, 68-69, 70.
• “Traveling Solo.” Quarterly West 57.2 (Fall 2003/Winter 2004): 22-28.
• “Populus Tremulae.” So to Speak 13.1 (Winter/Spring 2004): 14-17.
• “Moving On.” Let's Hear It: Stories by Texas Women Writers. Ed. Sylvia Grider and Lou Rodenberger. College Station: Texas A&M UP, Fall 2003. 388-401.
• “My Grandfather Shows Me a Photo.” Comstock Review 17.1 (Summer 2003): 60.
• “Girlfriends Solid as Rock.” Fourth Genre 4.2 (Fall 2002): 43-53.
• “Earth, Wind, Fire” and “Reading a Gambler's Will.” Iodine III.2 (Fall 2002): 13, 14.
• “The Making of Hanna Bellee.” Yemassee IX.2 (Spring 2002): 23-32.
• “The Cleaning Waters.” Concho River Review: Retrospective Issue. Guest Editor: Terry Dalrymple. XVI.1 (Spring 2002): 96-107.
• “Things Continue.” Colorado Review XXIX.2 (Summer 2002): 54-67.
• “By Instinct: An Interview with Ellen Cooney.” Iron Horse Literary Review 2.2 (Spring 2001): 70-81.
• “Highway Games: I-35 to Jacksonville, Texas.” South Dakota Review 39.1 (Spring 2001): 140.
• “The Cleaner.” Texas Short Stories II. Ed. Laurie Champion and Billy Hill. Dallas, Texas: Browder Springs, 2000. 611-31.
• “Witness.” Windhover 3 (Spring 1999): 87-107.
• “Moving On.” New Texas '98. Ed. Donna Walker-Nixon and James Ward Lee. Belton, Texas: U of Mary Hardin-Baylor P and Center for Texas Studies, 1999. 1-13.
• “Easy Living.” Rio Grande Review 18.1 (Spring/Summer 1999): 102-115.
• “Rescuing the Dead.” Alkali Flats 1 (Fall 1998): 121-31.
• “Belaire Theater.” Southwestern American Literature 24.1 (Fall 1998): 139.
• “The Fat Lady Sings.” Apostrophe 1.3-4 (1998): 60-66.
• “Any Minute.” descant 37.2/38.1 (Fall 1997/Spring 1998): 4-12.
• “The Revival.” Owen Wister Review 21 (Spring 1998): 13-23.
• “Burt The Chihuahua.” Roanoke Review 24 (Winter 1998): 11-15.
• “Polly Sunshine.” Texas Short Stories. Ed. Billy Hill. Dallas: Browder Springs, 1997. 165-74.
• “For the Mother-Poets.” RiverSedge 11 (Fall/Spring 1997): 69.
• “Fall, 1985.” The Distillery 4 (Summer 1997): 18.
• “The Ladies Circle.” Concho River Review 15 (October 1994): 1-8.
• “Holy Cows.” Concho River Review 15 (October 1994): 9-16.
• “The Cleaning Waters.” Concho River Review 12 (October 1991): 1-9.
• "Behind the Wheel."  Forthcoming in 13th Moon. Volume 20, Spring 2010.  7 mss. pages.
• "The Fires We Can't Control."  Colorado Review 36.2 (Summer 2009):  47-56.
• "Miracles Are Never the Hand We Hope For."  Spoon River Poetry Review XXXIV, Number 1 (Winter/Spring 2009):  37.
• "Call Waiting."  Quiddity Vol. 2.1 (Spring 2009):  10.
• "He Travels on Business."  Winner of the Meridian postcard prize competition.  Released at AWP in Chicago, February 2009.
• "Occupation."  Cave Wall No. 5 (Spring 2009):  52-53.
• "Any Minute." In Descant Fifty years:  The Literary Journal of TCU.  Edited by  David Kuhne.  Fort Worth: Texas Christian UP, 2008: 134-147.
• "The Break-In." Texas Monthly (August 2008): 64, 66, 68.

Reviews

• Rev. of Falling Man by Don DeLillo. Iron Horse Literary Review 9.1 (Fall 2007): 105-107.
• Rev. of Pamela Carter Joern's The Floor of the Sky.  Iron Horse Literary Review 8.1 (Fall 2006):  144-145.
• Rev. of Jim Sanderson's A West Texas Soapbox. Concho River Review 12.2 (Fall 1998): 84-86.
• Rev. of Francois Camoin's Like Love, but not exactly. Cimarron Review 102 (January 1993): 107-10.

Presentations

Invited

• Over forty workshops on narrative law—as defense strategy against the death penalty at trial, in post-conviction appeals, and at clemency hearings. Seminars and presentations include events hosted by the ACLU; Alabama Public Defenders Office, California Public Defenders; The Center for International and American Law in Dallas, Texas; Deep South Capital Defenders; the Federal Capital Habeas office in Las Vegas, Nevada; Federal Defenders Office; Federal Defense Services of Idaho; John Marshall School of Law; the Juvenile LWOP Sentencing Forum at the USC Gould School of Law; the national Federal Defender Capital Habeas Unit; the Indiana Public Defender Council; Louisiana Capital Defenders; the NAACP Capital Trial College hosted by the Legal Defense Fund; the North Carolina Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers; Southern Center for Human Rights; Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association; and the Utah Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
• "Q&A: Navigating the Literary Landscape." With Michael C. Curtis (The Atlantic), Peter Stitt (Gettysburg Review), Jodi Stanley (Ninth Letter). Ohio State University's Writers' Guild, Columbus, Ohio. (April 8, 2011).
• "An Interview with Thomas Cahill, David Dow, and Robert Elder." For C-SPAN Book TV, Texas Book Festival, Austin, Texas. (October 7, 2010).
• "Starting and Publishing a Literary Journal." Spring Art Fling, Austin Community College, Austin, Texas. (April 15, 2009).
• "Publishing in a Literary Journal." Writer's Week, Gunnison State College, Gunnison, Colorado. (March 15, 2009).
• "Second-Person Narration in Creative Nonfiction." Writer's Festival, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas. (April 2007).

Selected Professional Service and Editorial Boards

• Association of Writers and Writing Programs, 1993-present
• Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, 2010-present

Awards

• Pushcart Prize, The Pushcart Press, Wainscott, New York, 2018.
• Richard J. Margolis Award for Social Justice Writing, New York, New York, 2017, $5,000 (and a month-long residency at the Blue Mountain Center).
• Able Muse Fiction Prize, Summer 2017.
• Prime Number Magazine Fiction Award, Spring 2017.
• Soros Justice Fellowship, Open Society Foundations, New York, New York, 2014-2015, $120,000. For the development of Narrative Law as an innovative strategy in capital murder litigation/defense.
• Time and Place Prize, Gourin, France, July 2013, $6,000. Month-long residency in France, including airfare, meals, and accommodations.

• CAHSS Award, Texas Tech University, Fall 2013/Winter 2014, $8,500.
• Everett Southwest Literary Award, University of Central Oklahoma, Spring 2013, Judged by Lee K. Abbott, $5,000.
• Embrey Human Rights Fellowship, Southern Methodist University, 2012-2013, $22,000.
• CAHSS Award, Texas Tech University, Spring and Summer 2013, $6,900.
• Clarence Darrow College for Capital Litigation Fellowship, DePaul University, May 2012.
• CAHSS Award, Texas Tech University, Fall 2012, $3,000.
• Research Enhancement Fund, Texas Tech University, Spring 2009, $12,500.
• The Kimmel-Harding Nelson Center Residency for Writers, December 2005.
• The Kimmel-Harding Nelson Center Residency for Writers, November 2004.
• Writers' League of Texas, Creative Nonfiction Fellowship, 1st Place, 2002.
• Big 12 Faculty Fellowship, Texas Tech University & Oklahoma State University, 1998.
• Jacob K. Javitts Fellow, U.S. Federal Department of Education, 1988-92. $18,000 per year.

Founder and Editor

•  Iron Horse Literary Review, Lubbock, TX, 1999-present
  

Copy Editor

• Creative Nonfiction, Pittsburgh, PA, 2004-present