About Me
I was born in Chicago in 1960, and we moved to the suburbs of Detroit when I was four. My first awareness of poetry came from Dr. Seuss and a book called Hailstones and Halibut Bones that I was introduced to in second grade by a teacher I will never forget: Kathleen Doughty. I’m sure that growing up in a household of artists (Mom and Dad both) also contributed to my poetic sensibilities.
I received my BA in Art History from Vassar College—where I studied poetry with Nancy Willard and Brett Singer—and an MA in Art History from the University of Michigan. I spent more than two decades as an art museum educator, helping people of all ages recognize their own creativity and the transformative power of art.
After living on the east coast and then the west coast, I returned to the Midwest in 2002. I currently live in Sheboygan, Wisconsin where I make my living as a grant writer. I continue to blend my interests in visual art, poetry, and public spaces to create venues in which people can share their voices. From 2011 to 2023, I was an organizer for 100 Thousand Poets for Change, which brought diverse voices together annually across the globe. In 2016, I was awarded Vassar’s Time Out Grant for my project to build a children’s reading garden at a school in Malawi. Unfortunately, the project was never completed, but visit the “Projects” tab to learn what I had hoped to do and how far I got.
Since 2008, my poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Barstow and Grand, Big Muddy, Blue Heron Review, Bramble, Forge, Mom Egg Review, Moss Piglet, New Verse News, Portage, Red Fez, Seems, Verse Wisconsin, and Wisconsin People and Ideas. From 2010 to 2020, I was the founding poetry and arts editor of Stoneboat Literary Journal. From 2020 to 2025, I was the first poet laureate of Sheboygan. In 2022, I published my first novel, a historical fiction: The Lone Snake: The Story of Sofonisba Anguissola (Water’s Edge Press.)
I’ve been an editor (twice in partnership with an editorial team) of three anthologies, Van Gogh Dreams, From Everywhere a Little: A Migration Anthology (with Dawn Hogue) and 100 Thousand Poets for Change, 10+ Years of Poetic Activism (with Pilar Aranda and Canuto Roldan.) I have been included in several anthologies myself, including Through This Door, (2020), Sheltering with Poems: community and connection during covid, (2021), and Hope is the Thing: Wisconsites in Perseverance in a Pandemic, (2021). I have been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and have published four chapbooks (with a fifth on the way) and a four-year haiku journal. I was the 2023 Hal Prize winner for my poem, “Bodies of Water.” You can read a sampling of my work at the “Poetry” tab and check out my book list at “Books.”
As I get older, I have become aware that my mission in life is to connect, appreciate, and share compassion with others through poetry, stories, theater, and activism.
About my Blog
I named my blog, “Frying the Onion,” because Dad once told me that whenever he felt lonely or out-of-sorts, he would grab an onion and fry it up. Soon, the smell would seep through the entire house, and this warm, comforting smell would take over his senses. Soon, he would begin to feel much better. My hope is that whatever you may need to feel a little bit better about life will be stirred here and lifted up by my words as they waft on the delicious aroma of onions frying in butter.