About Me

My Interests: intergenerational storytelling; public libraries; choral music; peace studies; creative writing pedagogy; Anabaptism.

My Ongoing Objectives

• To make work and community grounded in the urgent play of creativity and lasting connection.

• To practice and encourage everyday nonviolence as an integral part of writing/mentoring/learning.

Education & Training

• Certificate in Mediation Training, Athens, Ohio, 2012

• Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Literature, Bennington College Writing Seminars

• Masters in English, Ohio University

• Bachelors in Musical Theater Writing & Music Composition, Otterbein University

• Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar, University of Leeds

Accolades

• 2026-2028 Athens Poet Laureate (Ohio)

• 2025 Yellow Door Fellowship, Prospect Street Writers House

• Longlisted for the 2021 Sappho Prize for Women Poets from Palette Poetry

• 2020 and 2014 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, poetry

• 2019 Semi-finalist, Sundress Publications open manuscript call; 2018 Finalist, Gazing Grain Press All-Genre Chapbook Contest

• 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee, “If I Had It in Me, I’d Make a Grocery List Worthy of My Century” in Sweet Lit.

• Mennonite Arts Weekend, Cinci OH, presenter/guest poet (February 2018)

• Jean and Louis Janzen Writers Series, Fresno Pacific University, Fresno CA with collaborator, artist Astrid Kaemmerling, PhD, (January 2018)

• 2014 Recipient, Art Gish Peacemaking Grant, Appalachian Peace and Justice Network

• 2011 Young Alumni Creativity and Research Award, Otterbein University

• 2004 Florence Kahn Memorial Chapbook Award, National Federation of State Poetry Societies

• 2001-02 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, England

 Teaching/Tutoring Experience

• Visiting poet & workshop instructor at
  Ohio University; Rutgers University; Goshen College; Otterbein University; Bluffton University; Ohio Poetry Association; Laurelville Retreat Center; Women in Leadership Conference, Mennonite Church USA

• 2005-2015, Ohio University

  • Courses: Writing and Rhetoric I and II; Creative Writing/Poetry; Original course: Poetics of War and Peace (undergrad poetry workshop); Women and Writing; Difficult Dialogues: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality; online facilitator for undergraduate and graduate courses in Business Communication.

• 2009-2015, Student Writing Center, Ohio University

  • Professional tutor (2009-2015) and Associate Coordinator (2010-2014)

    Writing Life Highlights:

• Panelist at Mennonite/s Writing 10: An International Conference, Winnipeg Manitoba (June, 2025)

• “Kintsugi as Bob Marley, Yo La Tengo, Thelonious Monk, and Over The Rhine," "My Darling, You Aren’t Mine" "100% illuminated," and "Late to the Table" in the New Ohio Review (July, 2024).

• “The Root Together” in Hunger Mountain (February 2024)

• “Ceremony of Belonging” in Change Seven (October 2023)

• 2023 {Re}HAPPENING, What I say to this house, Black Mountain College, Asheville, NC (April 2023)

• “With So Many Military Metaphors During the Pandemic, I Think of the Civilian Public Service Boys Yet Again”; “Daily Practice”; and “After Hearing of Another Miraculous Pregnancy While Re-reading ‘Traveling through the Dark’” in the Friends of William Stafford Journal/Newsletter (November 2022)

• “Both Goal and Medicine” in Rattle (April 2022)

• Tupelo Press “30/30” volunteer poet for April, 2021 (writing and posting a poem/day for a month to help raise funds for under-represented voices)

• Co-editor of spring 2019 issue of the Journal of Mennonite Writing: “Traditions in Translation” with Anita Hooley-Yoder.

• Collaborative work in Ginger (Issue #14, Fall 2018)

• "A Birth, a Flag, and My Introduction to Military Erotica": an essay in the Journal of Mennonite Writing (August 2018)

• Bennington Reading Series, Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC (April 2017)

• Judge, Poetry Out Loud, SE Ohio semi-finals, 2017-2023.

• Voices Together: Mennonite Worship & Song Committee (hymnal text sub-committee, volunteer screener), 2017-18

• "New Monasticism, Old Homesickness" (multi poetry book review-essay) in Image, January 2017

• "St. Francis Appears..."; "St. Francis Considers..." in Image, March 2015

• Review/Essay: Brian Turner's My Life as a Foreign Country in Brevity, September 2014