Who I am

I began writing and editing as soon as I could read. Once I learned what punctuation could do, I felt the mysteries of the universe open to me. It helped that I grew up in a family in which my dad was a newspaper editor and my mom an avid reader and lively correspondent. When I received my first typewriter at the age of seven and my library card shortly after that, the entire world became my story.

With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English, I found my way to a career in educational publishing. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to become managing editor of a literature and language arts anthology series for grades 6-12, for which I was given the resources to build an incredibly gifted staff—truly a dream team. Together we created a program that introduced great literature to students across the country, from classrooms in Alaska accessible only by floatplane to a literacy program for English language learners in New York City Public Schools.

While my work in ed pub taught me how to engage readers and keep them reading, my own writing interests have kept me current on craft. Writing fiction has taught me much, as has critiquing the work of others. I’m particularly grateful to be a member of Shirin Yim Leos’ “Uninventables” group after meeting her at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, where she was director. My writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and was awarded first place, novel category, at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. In June I attended the Collegeville Institute’s ten-day “Apart and Yet a Part” workshop led by Michael N. McGregor.

After twenty years on the West Coast, I live most of the year along the North Shore of Lake Superior, returning to Northern California when I can. There’s much to explore wherever I find myself—sometimes an entire universe in a sentence.