Artist's Statement

I taught myself to read when I was four, or so the family story goes, and took up writing shortly thereafter.

My first writing projects were letters, beginning when I was eight—to my cousins, grandmothers, friends, and to my English pen pal Susan Hatto, who was the first to recognize me as a writer. I entered short story contests, co-wrote the fourth-grade class plays on Manifest Destiny, and won the poetry contest in the fifth grade. Later, I decided to follow Brenda Starr (my role model journalist from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette comic pages) into journalism. I took 18 hours of journalism courses in college, where I was disappointed that few appreciated my creative approach to news writing.

Graduating with a BA in history, I worked four years at the National Geographic and found myself no closer to be being a writer or even a decently paid proofreader. So I made a sea change to a finance/marketing career, earned an MBA at night, and that’s where I am today: a schizophrenic writer who often writes workplace conflict and struggles into her stories.

I continue to write on my own time--short stories, parts of a novels, parts of a screenplay, web site material—and enroll in noncredit writing courses. I join writer and book groups occasionally. I’ve published nonfiction articles for mainstream magazines and written reams of advertising copy. I also won an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest annual fiction contest.

I received an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte in 2010. The program , faculty, and other students there helped me affirm that writing is the place to begin again—every day.