I am a late-bloomer. I went back to school at age fifty for my MFA. in poetry at New England College while teaching English Composition at Westfield State. Before that, I had four other lives, trying to navigate two bad marriages and a subsequent life as a single parent, moving north from New York to Connecticut. For a few years I tried my hand at being a singer-songwriter, writing about twenty-five original songs (I sing and play guitar) and making a CD in 1998. That was a good year for me. I moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts, found work as a teacher and met my husband Gary, who is still with me after twenty-three years and I think I may let him stay a few more. I have two grown daughters and a stepson, and a wonderful seven-year-old grandson.

I grew up in Manhattan and Westchester County, New York, where I played violin in school and studied guitar. In addition to my MFA in Creative Writing, I have a degree in French Literature and one in Bilingual Education. I am a singer as well, and have performed in musical theater, in choirs, coffee houses and at festivals. I have three full-length published books of poetry, all from Salmon Poetry. The Philosopher’s Daughter (2013) was my first full-length book and is about my parents, my rather eccentric family and my journey through and out of domestic abuse. My father was a professor of Philosophy and died of brain cancer when I was 28, so the book title is for him. 

My second book of poems is Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak, (2016) and it is about music, voices, time and memory. My most recent book, Keeping Planes in the Air (2020) is about loss, ghosts, memory and ephemera. It has been a joy to have my books published by Salmon and I have traveled to Ireland twice in the past few years. I read in Ennistymon at the Salmon bookshop and at the Courthouse Gallery there, and also in the Over the Edge series at the Galway Library. I hope to return soon again, when this time of pandemic is finally over. I’d also like to travel back to France, where I lived for a couple years when I was young. Reach out to me on Facebook and at thepoetrynews@gmail.com.