Welcome to the Mountain School! I joined as director in July of 2022 and am very excited to lead the school into its next chapter. A lot of the best aspects of the Mountain School are built into its very core: the farm, the woods, the trails. And a lot of the best aspects of the Mountain School shift all the time: new students every semester, changing expectations around curriculum, new contexts of understanding in the world. What excites me about leading the Mountain School at this moment is to bring these two pieces into conversation with each other. How can the essential, permanent features of the Mountain School speak to this present moment, to the new students who will arrive on campus each semester? I draw a lot of hope from the cycle of the seasons: that's an excellent model of permanence and change. Or rather, permanence in change.

I come to the Mountain School after many years of teaching English and authoring novels. I think my practice as a writer has prepared me well to lead the Mountain School: it's all about revision. Taking those first, exciting ideas, letting them develop and spin out and asking "what if?" and then, in the leadership role, knowing when to pause in that dreamy creative process and bring things back down to earth. Editing and revision isn't often the most fun part of writing, but it is where and how writing gets good.

So, I invite you to check out this website and - if you are ever near Vershire - to check out the campus as well. It is an ever-changing place full of beauty.