History:

I came from a loving, small-town upbringing. My parents spoiled me with privileges like education and dance lessons and taught me how to accept others open-mindedly while making sure not to minimize myself in any relationship, personal or professional. Writing heals me, tortures me, constructs me, and affirms me. (So does my doting family of a warm and kind husband and two generously bright and animated children.) I am now 40, marked with “fine lines” and an even slower metabolism. A while ago, as with all of my other smart young friends emerging from academically reputable colleges, I catapulted myself into the working world with excitement, desiring to shape myself into a marketable and skilled young woman who could make solid impact, and finally storm the mall with my own money in my pocket. Well, in my Coach pocketbook. I have flourished into an imaginative but systematic high school English teacher. I have been inspiring teenagers with my gentle sarcasm and incisive wit since 2000.

At some point during the past 15 years, I lost grip on my first true love and childhood dream of writing stories and publishing them, inventing fictional characters and worlds to vivify the crises and wonders of real life. I’m determined to make writing my priority as the fourth decade of my existence bears down. It’s time to be young and dream again.

Pedigree:

B.A. in English/concentration in fiction writing – Connecticut College – 1997

MEd and secondary school teaching certification – UMass Boston – 2000

MA in English – UMass Boston – June 2012

MFA in Creative Writing – Emerson College – May 2015

Interests:

Well, duh – writing; reading, particularly Willa Cather and Flan O’Connor and some other modern stuff; spending money on clothes; watching reality t.v. with the husband; drawing with the kids; Kate Winslet; Madonna; smoothies (the creamy yogurt kind, not the icy kind), linguine carbonara and molten chocolate cake.  Yum.