I am a professor at the University of Tennessee and also direct the annual Young Writers Institute at the University for high schoolers and their teachers.

Black Box Theatre in Knoxville. Lawson-McGhee Public Library.

Tennessee Literary Arts Commission Literary Fellowship in Poetry, 1989. East Tennessee Literary Hall of Fame in Poetry, 2005, Friends of the Library. University of Tennessee Chancellor's Award for Research and Creative Activity, 2000. YWCA Woman of Achievement in the Arts, 2002.