I grew up about a mile from Thoreau’s cabin in Concord, Massachusetts, and just a bike ride away from Louisa May Alcott’s family home. There was never a time in my life when I didn’t believe that I, too, would become a writer. And I did: I have worked as a newspaper reporter, freelance magazine journalist, nonfiction book author, communications professional, and magazine editor. Now I write books for kids and teens. In fact, I’m getting an MFA in writing for children at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. My work there was recently recognized with two scholarship awards: The Herman W. Block scholarship for my young adult novel manuscript, What You See, sponsored and selected by author Kate DiCamillo (I blogged about it here), and the Frances and Kermit Rudolf scholarship for my nonfiction picture book manuscript, Osprey’s First Summer.
My first novel, WASHASHORE, grew out of a summer I spent as a teenager living alone in a cottage on Martha’s Vineyard while I worked part-time in an art gallery. (That was one of many summer jobs I had on the island: waitress, chambermaid, store clerk, bakery assistant, and babysitter.) What I learned about the majestic ospreys while writing this book kindled a lifelong fascination with birds and migration. The book was named the winner of the 2014 Green Earth Book Award, for a novel that promotes environmental awareness in kids and teens. WASHASHORE is currently out of print but I’m looking forward to making it available again soon.
I have written many magazine articles, both as a freelancer and as the senior editor of Columbus Monthly magazine. Some of the most fascinating stories I have covered include a young woman’s perilous escape from an abusive boarding school in Somalia, what life was like for an undocumented woman living in sanctuary in a church, and how a local high school came to be built on top of the family cemetery of one Columbus’s earliest Black residents. Some awards my work has won in Ohio include, from the Press Club of Cleveland, Best News Story, Best Personality Profile, Best Analysis, Best Single Essay and Best Arts Feature. In 2020, the nationwide City and Regional Magazine Association made me a finalist for Writer of the Year.
I live with my husband and our cockapoo in Ohio, receiving occasional visits from our two grown kids. We spend a few months each year on Martha’s Vineyard, where my mother and brother and a piece of my heart reside. My new young adult novel, WHAT YOU SEE (the title is a quote from Thoreau), will be on submission soon; it’s represented by Micah Brocker of the Corvisiero Literary Agency. I’ve also published a nonfiction book, A CITY YEAR, an account of a year I spent in Boston with a team in the nationally-known youth service program.
Fun Fact: I once spent half a year living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with my husband and kids. My mother’s Dutch, so I spent a good deal of time digging for my roots. Now I’m (finally) learning Dutch and working on a historical novel based on my mother’s life in Indonesia and Holland during and after World War 2. You can read my blog about our stay in Holland here.
