Joe Essid

Welcome to a site with my teaching, 

writing, and hobbies.

My late father-in-law's John Deere M tractor, vintage 1951. I restored it; I use it to cut grass on our farm.

Thanks for stopping by this site. I am a writer, educator, and part-time farmer who lives in Goochland County, where my wife runs Beepasture Farms LLC. I've been with the University of RIchmond since 1991, where I direct the Writing Center, part of the Weinstein Learning Center. 

You'll find materials at this site for courses I teach, ongoing writing projects as well as past ones.  My current academic interests involve technology in the classroom, the management of writing centers, and teaching science fiction. I publish an occasional SF or horror story, op-ed about Richmond, VA history or culture,  review a scale-model kit I build, or review a text in military history.

I'm a bit of a gearhead, so you may run into me working on old cars and tractors. 

That involves breaking stuff too, while learning painting and body-work. I began as an utter novice who could only change the oil but ended up a columnist for Hemmings Motor News, "The Bible of the Old-Car Hobby."

You'll get a glimpse at my other hobbies (model building, gardening, fishing, hunting, hiking, travel) and interests. There's even a bit of my Lebanese-Turkish-American family history here as I help my extended family in the States and Cananda collect and share stories.


Nancy and I enjoy travel. We made our first real trip to the West in 2022. Here we are at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon .