Born and raised in the Southern California town of Richard Nixon's undergraduate college, I have endured decades of puns about being the wittier for it. With a degree in journalism, I initially worked as a writer and editor for a Bay Area women's magazine, covering health issues while ingesting pizza dinners at my desk and caffeine on the commute home. After earning my MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, I moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury to live a life of literary glamour. (In other words, as a bookstore event coordinator, I was home at night by ten.) Later, I worked as a writing tutor for college applicants, mostly high-school seniors, who brought me hope for humankind--even if they did add tapioca to their tea.

My stories and essays have appeared in (and/or won awards from) both commercial magazines (Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Seventeen) and literary journals (Hippocampus, The Missouri Review, The Offing, Ploughshares, The Rumpus).

I like The Charleston, spinach and mango with peanut sauce, Downward-Facing Dog, and breaking the Rule of Three.