Hello and welcome to my author site. I’m the author of The Pattern Maker’s Daughter, a full-length poetry collection published by Bottom Dog Press in 2012 and a native of Western Pennsylvania, a place which has provided endless inspiration for writing — most particularly the tiny Borough of Dale in the City of Johnstown where I grew up. In 2013, I was picked up by the wind (really) and deposited suddenly in the South where I began to explore my “North/South” divide in new poems and prose while keeping themes of place, history, geography, and geology central to my muse. Current projects include a magical realism novel in progress, “The Republic of Jerusalem’s Trumpets,” (set in a fictional Dale) and a lyric-memoir-hybrid work titled “Going to Ninevah: Tales of the Rivercane Trail,” as well as a budding poetry manuscript, “Trace of Salt” which traces the salt licks along the Cumberland Settlements and their relationship to a very personal exile and new life.
A completed memoir, “Some Girls Have Auras of Bright Colors,” which chronicles a quirky coming-of-age with an atypical seizure disorder, is seeking an agent. When not writing, you can find me teaching as an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Cumberland University where I manage the Novus Literary Journal with students and colleagues and where I tap tap on that pink typewriter.
NEW ANNOUNCEMENT AS OF JANUARY 2021: See my home page for the latest updates about my social media platforms, including a new Instagram handle and video content coming!