Grant is a first-generation college student from Benton, Arkansas. He completed his PhD at the University of Arkansas in 2010 and has taught composition and literature courses for many years. He has published scholarship on Richard Wright, Ernest Hemingway and M. Scott Momaday, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allan Poe. Grant joined the faculty at Colorado State in fall of 2018 and teaches composition, literature, and American studies. From 2020-2026 he served as a First Year Composition administrator and worked with other administrators to design and revise the CO 150 common curriculum and to mentor and support Graduate Teaching Assistants.