Author, Editor, Coach for Writers

Working with Me

I offer one-on-one coaching and developmental editing to clients who want to get brave, take risks, and create work that burrows into readers’ minds and hearts.

Rather than telling you what’s all wrong with your work, I show you where your work is firing, and how to bring those elements out further to achieve your vision. I also give you a framework for drafting and revision that that helps you beat back the twin monsters of Perfectionism and Self-Doubt, who wrap themselves around your ankles every time you’re doing something cool.  

As a developmental editor, I am your collaborator on your poetry, fiction, or memoir project: I see the strengths in your work and give suggestions for how to further develop those strengths, whether it is by removing habits that hold the work back, or creative restructuring. A client once described me as “having the uncanny ability to see not just what the author says, but what she is trying to say.” I can’t wait to work with you.  

My Career (so far)

I’m the author of The Animal at Your Side, which won the Airlie Prize and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Julie Suk Award. My poems have appeared widely in journals, including Colorado Review, Muzzle, Copper Nickel, Crab Orchard Review, Harvard Review, Cincinnati Review, and Denver Quarterly. I’ve been a resident-fellow at Vermont Studio Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Evolve Marquette Creative Residency, and The Studios at MASS MoCA.

I started my journalism career in the Ecuadoran Amazon, where I reported on the effects of oil development and ecotourism. After freelancing for a year, I was awarded an editorial fellowship at Foreign Policy magazine, where I wrote daily blog posts and long-form articles. In 2016, I received a reporting fellowship from the International Women’s Media Foundation to report on the Colombian Peace Deal. I’ve written for The Atlantic, Smithsonian, The Guardian, and Vice. I also worked as a senior editor at Snopes from 2016-2017.

I completed my MFA at the Bennington Writing Seminars, where I studied poetry and fiction. I’m also a graduate of the Gateless Academy and a participant in The Writing Mentors training program. My first short story is forthcoming in The Bennington Review.