B.A. University of Massachusetts, Phi Beta Kappa, M.A. University of Michigan, Trinity College Oxford, Ph.D. New York University, Poetics Institute

Contact

Office: Parker Hall 310
Phone: (718) 420-3370
E-mail: psharpe@wagner.edu

Academic, Teaching, and Personal Interests

My course innovations at Wagner include the following titles: “Southern Women Writers”; “Growin’ Up In Dixie”; “Contemporary Irish Literature and Film”; “Creative Writing”; “Modern Poetry”; “Contemporary Poetry”; “African American Literature”; “American Mosaic”; “Feature Writing”; “Reviewing”; and “Sports Journalism.” My research interest are the ongoing critical study of poor and working class whites as represented in contemporary American fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography. My personal interests include Buddhist practice; anti-fracking activism in upstate New York; land stewardship and wildlife habitat creation; collecting and maintaining antique farm machinery and tools; restoration woodworking/cabinet making; jazz; cooking; fly fishing and hunting; hiking, wild berry picking, and orchard work.

Selected Publications

criticism/theory
The Ground of Our Beseeching:  Metaphor and the Poetics of Meditation. Selinsgrove & London:  Susquehanna University Press, 2004.

poetry, fiction, and journalism
Lost Goods & Stray Beasts. Boston: Rowan Tree Press, 1984.

Individual poems also published in the Massachusetts Review, Southern Review, and Davidson Miscellany (Contributor’s Prize). Fiction published in the Harbor Review. Journalism published in the New York Times and Baltimore Sun.

Awards, Honors, and Service

Wagner College Distinguished Scholarship Award (2004-2005)
Wagner College Distinguished Teaching Award (1996-1997)
Schweitzer Poetics Fellow (inaugural), New York University
CAPS Grant/poetry, New York State Council on the Arts