I am the author of How to Be Weird, Dream-Child: A Life of Charles Lamb, How to Make a Soul: The Wisdom of John Keats, Keep It Fake, Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck, My Business Is to Create: Blake's Infinite Writing, Against Happiness, and The Spiritual History of Ice.  In these and other books, I explore relationships among strange moods, good writing, and generous irony.  I teach creative writing and British Romanticism at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I also enjoy painting and running.