About

I’m a writer living in Central Pennsylvania, and teach English at Penn State. I also founded and run the chapbook press, Paper Nautilus.

I earned my degrees from Westfield State University and Southern Connecticut State University. I commuted all through undergrad, attended a community college for a year while on hiatus from my bachelors, and, later, excelled in a corporate career at a Fortune 100 company while completing my full-residency MFA. You could maybe say I’m a fan of the unconventional route.

I write poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Most of my books are of poetry, but right now I’m focused on a manuscript comprised of personal essays using pop music to explore and reflect on my own experiences. Some other topics that draw my interest or that I hope to devote more time writing about include parenthood, chronic illness/medical narratives, fictional biography, found poetry, and the National Radio Quiet Zone.

Teaching is a huge source of joy in my life, and not something I stumbled into accidentally. Beyond being work I enjoy, teaching (hopefully) makes me a better listener, which in turn makes me better able to hear what’s missing in my own drafts. Which is to say, teaching and writing are interwoven for me, and it’s hard to imagine doing one without the other.

What else? Only child. Elder millennial. Partner to an engineer. Mom. Novice knitter. Seltzer enthusiast.