I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and attended University of Arizona undergrad, studying English and Political Science. I went to grad school at Brown University but soon discovered academia wasn't for me. So I went to law school instead, at Rutgers. I spent most of my law career working as an appellate public defender in New York City, a job that provides a good deal of the source material behind my writing -- what I learned, saw, people I met. I'm also a former competitive ballroom dancer and I'm moved by art, by athleticism, by competition, by dancers and their lives. Most of my writing thus far deals with social issues -- class, gender, race, the legal system.  

My first novel, Swallow, about a young, female attorney with the psychosomatic disorder, Globus Hystericus, won the gold medal for best novel set in the Northeast in the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards, the gold medal for women's fiction in the 2010 Living Now Book Awards, and was a finalist in the 2009 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards, and the 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards.