About
After traveling the world as a child, I settled in the Sonoran desert, near Phoenix, Arizona, where I draw inspiration from the seemingly alien landscape. As the poet Kwame Dawes has said, “There is a perception that the desert is emptiness, desert is nothing. No, it is the poet’s playground.” Place is important in my writing, landscapes of present and past. I like to write about women and water, flesh and food, love and coming of age. I also like to incorporate playfulness into my writing, both poetry and prose. After decades of teaching college writing and literature classes, I recently finished my MFA at Pacific University in Oregon where I was fortunate to work with the stellar faculty there, especially Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, and Vievee Francis. I lead writing workshops on such topics as “Leaping into Creativity” and with my friend Sandi Marinella conduct workshops on writing and healing. I am an Associate Editor for the literary journal of Four Chambers Press. My poems are forthcoming or have appeared in The Avalon Literary Review, Snapdragon, Rougarou, Avocet, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Spilled Milk Magazine, Four Chambers, and Bared: An Anthology on Bras and Breasts. I am working on a book tentatively titled Delirium.
My current passion is WriteNow.ink, a website for writers, where my friend and fellow Pacific MFA graduate Lin Benedek and I host online classes and workshops. We hope to make our website a place for both published and aspiring writers to find resources and community, and for writers at any stage of the game to find classes that will inspire them and help them move forward with their goals. Initially our classes will be on various aspects of poetry, and we hope to add memoir writing classes soon. Please see what we're up to by visiting WriteNow.ink.
