I live in a leafy part of Baltimore, Maryland, about nine miles from the hospital where I was born. I have also lived in Paraguay (three weeks), Providence, Rhode Island (four months), Washington, DC (two years), and—most significantly—the San Francisco Bay Area (10 years). During my decade in the East Bay, I met my eventual husband, we bought our first house, and we raised our son to age four. Although I loved many things about Northern California, I’m an only child and wanted to be close by when my parents—still living in the Baltimore area—got older and needed me around. Fortunately, my native-Californian husband was game for a move.

As a child, I loved school right from the start. But by the time I was in ninth or tenth grade, one thing had become clear: Analyzing stories and crafting sentences lit me up in a way that history, math, and the rest did not. So, in college at Johns Hopkins and then grad school at Georgetown, I studied literature and writing.

Since finishing my master’s, I’ve worked as an editor, copyeditor, and proofreader, helping individuals and businesses to develop and polish their work. I’ve spent time as an in-house editor, but for the most part, I’ve freelanced. And I’ve taught writing (an interview with me about that—and more—appears here).

My short fiction, essays, and humor pieces have been published at NPR.org, American Short Fiction, The Johns Hopkins Magazine, The Rumpus, and other outlets. I’ve received an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council.

When my son was young and my head was full of the grade-school years, I wrote and illustrated the middle-grade novel GENIE WISHES, which Abrams Books published in 2013.

I’m on Facebook and Instagram, but email is the best way to reach me. To email me, click the envelope icon below.