I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, a solitary child with an active imagination. I learned to read before I went to school and came to understand the richness of friends found in books. From my early teenage years onward, I could not wait to leave home and live in New York City or Paris. I had always been a voracious reader, and thus people often assumed that I would become a writer, which, in my contrarian way, I resisted for many years because it was expected of me. When I was in my 30s, living in NYC, I fell in with a group of artists who made a living by proofreading, so I did that, too. And from there I became a copy editor, specializing in medical material.

I began writing short memoir pieces when my son left home for college, perhaps as an unconscious avenue of reflection on a major turning point, to reimagine myself beyond my role as a mother. I left NYC to return to Massachusetts, and there, as a result of my interest in memoir as a literary genre, was encouraged to join the staff as managing editor of a new print publication called Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir. A decade after that, I founded and edited my own publication, Run to the Roundhouse, Nellie, an online journal in which I and guest editors interviewed authors of memoirs and solicited essays on the art of writing memoir. A popular component of the journal was a showcase of short memoir pieces on a given theme. The quality of the submissions that flooded my inbox was truly revelatory -- and I am thrilled that I remain in touch with many of the writers who continue to produce amazing work.

Now I live in Maine with my husband, who is also a writer. We’ve managed to carve out a quiet but stimulating life, inspired by the endless natural beauty of both the coast and the inland wilderness. I continue to edit as a freelancer, primarily medical manuscript work for people in the health sciences, but also for local creative writers who want a bit of polish to their work before submitting for publication.