Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Masters of Fine Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York. 2008

  • The Salt Institute for Documentary Writing, Portland, Maine. 2003: Produced a documentary story entitled Working for the Living: A Day in the Life of a Funeral Home

  • Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. December 2002: B.A., Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Philosophy.

  • Semester at Sea, University of Shipboard Education, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 2001. Circumnavigation of the earth: Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, India, China, Japan, Mongolia. Focus on ethnographic research in Khanuy River Valley, Mongolia

Mothering

  • 2013: First son born, full-time care work while teaching, freelance writing, working as artist and author

  • 2015: First daughter born, full-time care work while teaching, freelance writing, working as artist and author

Teaching Experience

  • Maine Media Workshops: Nonfiction, Memoir

  • Colby College: Creative Nonfiction, Memoir

  • Maine Correctional Center: Memoir 

  • Maine Writers and Publishers Association: Creative Nonfiction, Memoir

  • USM’s Stonecoast MFA program: Nonfiction, Memoir

  • Maine College of Art and Design: Creative Nonfiction, Research & Inquiry

  • University of New Hampshire (MFA) 2019 Creative Nonfiction

  • Marlboro College summer institute: Nonfiction, Memoir

  • The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies: Nonfiction

  • York College: Research Writing

  • Sarah Lawrence College summer seminar: Memoir

  • Bronx Academy of Letters: Creative Writing, Literary Magazine editing

  • Westchester Correctional Facility: Creative Writing, Memoir

Editorial Experience

Books

  • The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna (Liveright Books, October 2020)

  • Poor Your Soul (Soho Press, 2016)

  • Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NYC. (Seal Press, 2013)

  • The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists

  • Famous Obscure (Harper Perennial 2013)

  • Get Out of My Crotch: Twenty-one Writers Respond to America War on Womens Rights and Reproductive Health (Cherry Bomb Press, 2013)

Major awards, honors and recognition

  • Bloomberg News. Jealousy List, Best Journalism of 2024

  • Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review. Publisher’s Marketplace. 2019

  • Maine Literary Awards winner, memoir, 2017

  • Kirkus Books' Best Nonfiction Book (category: memoir) of 2016.

  • Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review. Publisher’s Marketplace. 2016

  • Junior Library Guild Selection of the Year, 2016

  • Maine Public Radio Best Books of the Year. Maine Calling. 2016

  • The Huffington Post, Best Memoirs of 2016

  • Favorite Summer Nonfiction Reads, Boston Public Radio. 2016

  • The Atlantic Magazine's Exceptional Work of Journalism from 2015

  • Short Nonfiction Award Winner. Maine Literary Awards. 2014

  • The New Yorker, Page Turner's recommended reads, January, 2013

  • Freerange Nonfiction, voted best weekend pick by CBS News, 2010