The Next Big Thing: Fall 2026

Elizabeth Barrett Browning--a favorite portrait of hers.

In 1995 I started research on Elizabeth Barrett Browning--famous Victorian poet. I attended a conference at the Armstrong Browning Library (ABL) and knew it was going to be part of my future. I can't count how many times I've visited, but from then until I left Texas in 2008 (and even a few times after!), the ABL was an important part of my life.

I head back there now--as a retire professor, redefining who I am and what I can do.

I'm retired as of 1 September 2026 in Carlisle, PA where I'd been a Professor of Writing at the Army War College. I started driving to Waco, Texas as soon as I could to take up a visiting scholar position at Baylor University on 9 September. I applied last April because I needed to do something that matter to me, and this was going to matter.

I'll be taking up work I let go when I got my PhD from TCU. My final chapter of the dissertation I wrote suggested the next steps in the BIG work I'd started. I didn't have time then to pursue the logical conclusion to that research. I had to graduate and move on with my life, so I left a cliffhanger of sorts regarding my intellectual life.

I was certain I'd pick those threads up and start weaving again immediately upon being employed as a professor at Auburn University at Montgomery in 2008. That did not work out how I imagined. It was fantastic--I did great teaching, revitalized a floundering writing program, created new undergrad and grad courses in writing and Victorian literature, established and implemented a master's program for teaching writing in colleges, and did kickass research on writing studies with a whole lot of amazing people. But I did not continue my literary work that I started in my doctoral dissertation. I missed it and often thought about it fondly. I knew I wanted to go back to it eventually, but when.

For some reason, I was online looking at the ABL last spring and I thought: that's where I need to go. That was it. If I could get a visiting fellowship there for any amount of time, I could recraft my intellectual persona and start to do the work I have always loved: reading explicating literature and figuring out the historical importance of literature. Many folks wonder what they'll do when they retire. Many flail about in horrifying ways when they retire. I am lucky. I had work unfinished that could lead me into this next phase of my life, when it turns out, I will have no job title that defines me. My work, though, will continue to help me understand my identity as it's changing once again.

I'll be working on a second edition of a volume of poetry, Poems Before Congress (PBC), first published in 1860. Elizabeth Barrett Browning envisioned a second edition but never got to see happen. She died in 1861. And in the aftermath, her loving husband, Robert Browning, put together and published her Last Poems. That volume contained many of the poems she had thought could be in the PBC2. I don't know yet if he knew of her desire for a PBC2, but she laid out the whole second edition in a detailed letter to American Publisher, C.S. Francis. I want to create that vision for her work. It will be a powerful collection of poetry she wrote that was purposely focused on political issues: conflicts between No and So in America and Italy, the ravages of war in Europe, the toll war takes on families and more. Many of these final poems found a place in political realms. Her work was read in the British Houses of Parliament and the Italian Parliament in the midst of the Risorgimento (the movement to unify the Italian Peninsula into one country). She was so well known to the Italians that they still consider her a poet of the Risorgimento. Florence (where she'd lived and died) mourned her death. Shops in Florence were closed during her funeral procession. Her poems had been broadsheets and shared among many Italians--to see such a famous poet write to support their cause was inspirational. She and her son also contributed funds for the Italian Wars of Independence.

Politics and Poetry. Throughout history, anyone who cares to look, can find a link... always.

I'll be a visiting scholar at Baylor's Armstrong Browning library this fall, 2026, to dig back into this work. I cannot wait. It's meaningful to me and to literary history. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was so much more than "Mrs. Browning" or the "Love Poetess." I want to be sure future scholars look beyond "How do I love thee, let me count they ways."

And with this, I redefine myself. Again. Because I can rethink who I am and what benefits I bring to the world, I feel, in equal measure, thrilled and determined.

And after this visiting scholar gig--more of this kind of thing? Maybe. Maybe I'll just move around to various libraries and do research until I drop dead. I like that idea. But who knows what else I might get into. I can write. I can read. I can think. I can work. There is no telling what else I might find to keep my brain active and excited to be still operating--perhaps for another couple of decades.

I'm a retired professor, a visiting scholar, and perhaps, I'll do a bit of strategic writing consultation (if it doesn't interfere with my literary life).

Here's to the next big thing then. And good for me.

I may not know where I'll be living from month to month, but I'll be reading a lot of fun fiction: space opera, science fiction, fantasy, romantasy, high fantasy. And I'll be writing a lot, researching, thinking, creating art, and living a life of intellectual and spiritual fulfillment. I will not be like that sad human from Joseph Campbell's Open Life (a great colletion of interviews), who climbed to the top of the ladder, who was so successful, then when he looked to see what there was, he realized he'd put his ladder on the wrong wall.

My ladder is on the right wall, and it's looking good out there.