DIRECTORY PROFILE

Degrees

BA English/Creative Writing Univ. of Michigan
MFA Fiction Univ. of Iowa Writers' Workshop

Bio

I’ve been teaching composition, creative writing, and literature for over 25 years at Napa Valley College and elsewhere, and I've worked and been involved with the Napa Valley Writers' Conference for almost 30 years. I currently serve as Managing Director of the Writers' Conference. I have an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. I was also a Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford, and a MacDowell Fellow. I approach all of my teaching as a writer who is writing or trying to write every single day. In addition to teaching and writing, I also enjoy hiking, baking, knitting, and horror (movies and novels!). I am an enrolled member of the Miami tribe and working actively to learn the Miami (Myaamia) language in my free time. Some favorite writers are Shirley Jackson, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, Kevin Brockmeier, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Cormac McCarthy. 

Honors and awards

Stegner Fellow, Fiction, Stanford University
MacDowell Fellow, Fiction

Additional roles at NVC

Managing Director, Napa Valley Writers' Conference