photo credit Clayton J. Mitchell
Writer
My creative nonfiction writing blends heart with humor. Personal essay and short memoir are my favored forms. These days, I mostly write about teaching and students. Some of my older essays are about parents, relationships, dating in middle age, health, and travel.
I was inspired to begin taking writing classes in 2010, when I met artist Louise Minks at her studio near Massachusetts' Montague Book Mill. Since then, one of my essays has been named Notable in the Best American Essays of 2016. My writing has also won awards in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, a contest for which I judged the Humor category.
A piece I wrote during pandemic distance teaching was awarded runner-up for Teachers and Writers Magazine's Bechtel Prize. I've also won several other awards, including second place in a Memoirs Ink contest. Though it took me from age six until age fifty-one to surrender to my life-long love of writing, I derive tremendous joy from my literary endeavors.
My creative nonfiction writing blends heart with humor. Personal essay and short memoir are my favored forms. These days, I mostly write about teaching and students. Some of my older essays are about parents, relationships, dating in middle age, health, and travel.
I was inspired to begin taking writing classes in 2010, when I met artist Louise Minks at her studio near Massachusetts' Montague Book Mill. Since then, one of my essays has been named Notable in the Best American Essays of 2016. My writing has also won awards in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, a contest for which I judged the Humor category.
A piece I wrote during pandemic distance teaching was awarded runner-up for Teachers and Writers Magazine's Bechtel Prize. I've also won several other awards, including second place in a Memoirs Ink contest. Though it took me from age six until age fifty-one to surrender to my life-long love of writing, I derive tremendous joy from my literary endeavors.
Teacher
I taught for thirty-two years in the East Bay of San Francisco's Bay Area, and feel fortunate to have had a job in which I laughed and was challenged every day. I mostly taught third and fourth grades, and my students graciously provided me with plenty of writing material. In the Title I public school where I taught, English was a second language for more than half of the children. I'm passionate about public education and advocating for students, and am proud to have been active in the leadership of my teachers' union.
There is little that I love more than reading the writing of 8- and 9-year-old students. I'm amazed by how much I've learned about the craft of writing simply by teaching young writers.