A journalist for nine years, I have consistently contributed to daily newspapers including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Virginian-Pilot, alt-weeklies including Style Weekly and Port Folio Weekly, where I maintained a column, as well as several monthlies and glossy publications. I am currently editor of the Westmoreland News. I teach creative nonfiction techniques and memoir writing to adults and teens and developed a writing for empowerment workshops. I am the author of An Afterhours Ballad (Two-Handed Engine Press).
I've been most influenced by poets. Some of them include Gregory Orr, Marie Howe, Charles Simic, Mary Oliver, Lisa Russ Spaar, Randall Jarrell, Jane Kenyon, James Wright and many others. I greatly admire Anton Chekhov, Denis Johnson, Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, David Schickler, Rick Bragg, Dorothy Allison, Susan Minot and many others.
I graduated Old Dominion University with a Bachelor of Science magna cum laude, and moved to Boston, drawn by my strong interest in the city’s history and music scene. I lived there two years, taking classes in writing, Constitutional Law and Philosophy at Simmons College, a women’s college steps from Fenway Park.
I am a songwriter and musician and a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). I began teaching a writing workshop that I developed in September 2009. My poems have appeared in numerous literary journals.
Awards
- Awarded 1st Place for a Profile, “A Family Recipe for Life” Sep. 2007, by Univ. of Missouri School of Journalism and North American MPA
Education
University of Virginia
Poetry and Printmaking, Summer 2002
Studied with Gregory Orr and Dean Dass
Old Dominion University, Bachelor of Science, 1996
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
Bookmarks
Share
Save
[