I have been writing fiction and nonfiction for forty years and am passionate about storytelling. I have also been teaching adults in the arts since 1995, and love helping people develop new skills and work toward mastery of their craft.
I graduated with with a major in creative writing from Interlochen Center for the Arts, and attended the University of Iowa where I earned a B.A. in religion and minored in several fields, including expository writing. I won a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities and attended Princeton University, where I earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in History, specializing in the history of life sciences and natural history in particular. I enjoyed two years as a post-doc at the Smithsonian Institution.
As the academic job market had begun its catastrophic decline, I returned to my arts background and opened my studio in 1995. I taught metalsmithing at the Worcester Center for Craft for many years, and conducted workshops around the US, in Canada, and in the summer short courses program at the Sir John Cass School of Art and Design in London, UK. These years gave me valuable experience teaching new skills to adults from diverse backgrounds.
I am supervised by two parrots and a quantum particle disguised as a puppy named Gem.