Like Pablo Neruda, writing came to me. I don’t know how or why or when. But it came to me dressed in the only pretty face it had: in long swooping capital let
ters and synonyms and homonyms. It came to me in the moment that I wanted to seek out who I was, really. As I type, almost tripping on my fingers and backspacing, retyping not revising; I think about my first kiss or when I fell in love in the moments of the page and the person and I want to write about that too.
I did not find writing. Writing found me. When I think about its laugh or the way it holds me in the night when no one is there to touch me, or the way it doesn’t shame me, how it accepts me when I’m fat or thin or happy or depressed, I know that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. And in those brief spaces where I wonder if I am doing the right thing, when my manuscript is rejected for the fifth time, I know that there will be many more disappointments and it’s OK. It is OK because this is where I am supposed to be: writing.
I have ten years of writing and editorial experience, a B.A. in English Literature from Drew University and an M.A. in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Sussex (UK). My poetry has appeared in literary journals such as Nimrod, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Resurgence (UK), HerCircleEzine and Aesthetica Annual. I am the recipient of the Spire Press Poetry Prize and a 2000 and 2003 Pushcart Prize Nominee. I have contributed to trade and commercial magazines like Premier Romance, Bonita Magazine, Premier Hotels, Premier Spas, Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent Magazine, Newark Council Monitor, Aesthetica: A Journal of Arts, The New Writer, and Open Wide Magazine (UK).
I have proofread books such as the All Music Guide: Contemporary Country (BackBeat Editions), All Music Guide: Old School Rap and Hip-Hop (BackBeat Editions), This Business of Songwriting (Billboard Books), The Complete Guide to the Craft: Song Writing (Limelight Editions) and The Future of the Music Business (Hal Leonard Books). I judged the literary entries for the book Alt-History: New Writing from Brighton published by QueenSpark Books. Reach Out.
