Artist Statement
I’m not sure when exactly I decided to become a writer, but as far back as I can remember, I have loved writing — the act of it, the sound of it when read aloud, the results on the page or the screen when I’m done. This passion may have started in second grade, when I got my first diary as a gift, and I still keep a journal, more than four decades later.
I’ve spent those last four decades in Virginia, and while I enjoy Southern chattiness and our temperate climate, I spent my first 12 years just outside Cleveland, and I still prefer “you guys” to "ya’ll". As I grew older, I enjoyed creative writing opportunities in middle school and joined my high school’s literary magazine staff. In my senior year, I supplemented my required English class with a World Lit course taught by Jeanne Saunders, the perfect mentor for an aspiring writer. By then I knew I wanted to write for a living, and journalism seemed the obvious career choice. I chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for its award-winning journalism school, and I also came to love Carolina’s trademark blue skies and top-tier basketball program — Tarheel fans, anyone?
And though I’d first imagined myself strictly as a newspaper reporter, I instead chose to spend my first decade on the job building my skills in a variety of creative areas. This was possible because I worked on skeleton staffs producing in-house publications for several employers. Writing-wise, at a bank I learned how to build employee esprit de corps, and how to portray lung cancer’s fatal blow to a well-liked CEO. For a legal association, I wrote about a leading female attorney’s compassionate pro bono work, and I wrote about clergy sexual misconduct for a church’s diocesan headquarters. And most fulfilling of all, for a renowned teaching hospital I wrote about doctors’ miracles and patients’ endurance. And beyond writing and editing, I had a blast capturing photographic candids, experimenting with fonts and CMYK color swatches (anyone remember those?), and learning how to balance white space with graphic elements and the weight of copy on a page.
After a move to my current home in Virginia’s Tidewater region, and a few years off to start a family, I got an unexpected opportunity to help several family members launch a free health-and-wellness magazine. I was lucky to gain an instant outlet for writing news articles, features and cover stories on a wide array of topics, from new medical advances to inspiring individuals overcoming everything from addiction to brain cancer to postpartum depression. And I helped foster the growth of a readership who enjoyed our positive, empowering vibe, some following the magazine for its entire 15 years in print.
Since then, I've enjoyed writing personality profiles and location features for a few other local and regional publications in Virginia. Also, over the years I’ve taken a handful of creative writing courses and workshops and written a growing collection of poetry, so one avocation — after many years of PTA leadership in my children’s schools — has been teaching creative writing to young people in after-school clubs and a summer camp. Most recently, I was accepted into the 2023-24 Chapbook Lab program at the Charlotte Center for the Literary Arts in Charlotte, N.C., joining a cohort of poets as we each endeavor to produce a chapbook of poems ready for submitting to publishers or contests.
In my free time, I’ve found memorable and even spiritual experiences in many places beyond a sanctuary — walking along a sunlit path, singing a choral masterpiece, or saying a closing “Namaste”. I think some of the best therapy can be found through writing, but also in nature. And of all nature’s joys, I find that few compare to being in, on or near the water.
The late writer David Foster Wallace once said that the best writing creates a bridge across the “abyss of human loneliness,” noting the impossibility of us fully knowing each other's feelings and thoughts. With every story or poem I write, I search for words that sing, but I also hope to create a few less lonely souls.
