Carroll University - English
Associate Professor of English
Higher Education
B.J.
Best
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Professor. Specialties include poetry writing, fiction writing, interactive fiction writing, English composition, and videogame theory.
Poet and creative writer. Four books and four chapbooks of poetry.
Children's nonfiction author. Three books for grades 4 or above; thirty books for grades K-2.
Recovering actuary. I still love a good spreadsheet.
Manager, Analytical Services
Health insurance consultant for a large Milwaukee corporation.
Associate Professor Of English
I teach courses in writing, creative writing, professional writing, and running a literary magazine.
I have chaired or co-chaired planning / budget, accreditation, and ethics committees.
I received an award for faculty excellence in 2015.
Poet and Creative Writer
I have published three books of poetry: But Our Princess Is in Another Castle (Rose Metal Press, 2013), Birds of Wisconsin (New Rivers Press, 2010), and State Sonnets (sunnyoutside, 2009). A fourth book, the novella-in-verse I got off the train at Ash Lake, is forthcoming from sunnyoutside.
I have published four chapbooks of poetry: Yes (Parallel Press, 2014), Drag: Twenty Short Poems about Smoking (Centennial Press, 2011), Mead Lake, This (Centennial Press, 2007), and Crap (Centennial Press, 2005).
I have published more than two hundred individual poems.
I have published about ten flash fictions.
I've published several interviews in print and online venues.
Reviews and discussion of my work have appeared in The Believer, Utne Reader, Chicago Tribune, Pleiades, and Indiana Review, among other places.
Children's Nonfiction Author
I have written three books for Cavendish Square: Investing Your Money (4th grade), Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation (5th grade), and Wind Power (6th grade).
MFA
Creative Writing
Bachelor’s Degree
Actuarial Science
sunnyoutside
A collection of sonnets written about different U.S. states (and two Canadian provinces).
sunnyoutside
A collection of sonnets written about different U.S. states (and two Canadian provinces).
Cavendish Square
Children's nonfiction about investing. Fourth grade reading level.
sunnyoutside
A collection of sonnets written about different U.S. states (and two Canadian provinces).
Cavendish Square
Children's nonfiction about investing. Fourth grade reading level.
New Rivers Press
A collection of poems discussing, unsurprisingly, the birds of Wisconsin.
sunnyoutside
A collection of sonnets written about different U.S. states (and two Canadian provinces).
Cavendish Square
Children's nonfiction about investing. Fourth grade reading level.
New Rivers Press
A collection of poems discussing, unsurprisingly, the birds of Wisconsin.
Rose Metal Press
A collection of prose poems inspired by classic video games.