I have been a mother and poet and writer in Los Angeles for almost twenty years.

My newest collection of poetry, “The Vital Function of Constant Narrative,” won first prize in a manuscript contest and was published by V Press LC, and it’s also available online.

Currently I’m putting together an anthology of poems, editing twelve short stories, working on longer fiction and volunteering as a writer, editor and educator in the local community.

I was born in Louisiana, grew up in Maryland and spent summers in Northern California and on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. I went to school in Maryland, California, Virginia and Texas.

Austin in the 1990s was an excellent place to be a new or seasoned poet and I’m forever grateful to The Electric Lounge, The Austin Chronicle and those artists and writers who are collaborators and dear friends today.

Local poetry launched my professional/academic writing life. I was a Michener Fellow at The University of Texas, and awarded a post-graduate poetry fellowship the year after that. I was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, and an NEA grant recipient in poetry.

The University of Akron Press published my thesis book of poems and it’s available online.

I look forward to writing and editing in France and Italy next year and working with an independent arts publisher in Los Angeles.