BIO

I started writing poetry when I was 7 years old. Five months before John F. Kennedy was assassinated my favorite teacher gave me my first journal. It had a classic black cover and empty white pages. I let her read some of my entries and she underlined her favorite words and bracketed those I could omit. She said I had a natural flair for the repetition of sound groups. Poetry is hard, she said, because the writer has to be extremely observant but time and space limit what can go on the paper. She told me to "keep it up" and that I had many good ideas. Poems about the fog and candles and the wind filled my journal. In time there were more journals, and my writing became about finding love on a summer vacation and the drama of my first year away at college. I was no longer writing poetry, and my observations focused on the machinations of my inner world.

I majored in Aesthetic Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Under the auspices of this independent major I wrote a thesis focusing on the writings of Robert Penn Warren and the history of the American south. I was interested in fiction as it reflected what was going on in the real world. Along these lines, I completed a master's degree in journalism from the University of Michigan.

As a journalist I was always more interested in feature writing. This led to classes in the art of fiction writing with Tom Kealey and Ellen Sussman, authors and teachers in the Stanford Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program. I studied memoir writing with authors Diane Frank at San Francisco State and Monica Wesolowska at Book Passage. Monica has become an invaluable editor, and  I currently participate in monthly writing workshops with author and teacher Elizabeth Rosner. I have found my voice in the writing of creative non-fiction.

I started dancing when I was very young, and over the years my working life has fluctuated between writing and dancing. I have performed with a range of modern dance companies and taught creative movement to young children. I worked in public relations and taught journalism in Colorado. I volunteer as a writing tutor with 826 Valencia.

My piece “Letting Go” was included in the 15th print anthology of Crack the Spine and an excerpt from my memoir Duet was published as “A Birthday Duet” in the Fall, 2021 issue of the Signal Mountain Review. “Holding Mom and Mendelssohn” was published in Issue 63 (May 2024) of Adelaide Magazine.