About

I’m the author of This Lovely Life:  A Memoir of Premature Motherhood (Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books), winner of the PEN Center Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Bakeless Prize and selected as a 100 Best Book by the San Francisco Chronicle.  My work has appeared in the Seneca Review and the Santa Monica Review as well as the anthologies, Love You to Pieces:  Creative Writers on Raising a Child With Special Needs, and Literary Mama:  Reading for the Maternally Inclined.  I wrote a column at Literary Mama for several years, have been a fellow at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and a resident at the Cottages at Hedgebrook.

Several years ago, after a long career teaching creative writing, I embarked on a new adventure and became a registered nurse. Today, I work in the operating room at a level 1 trauma center in Los Angeles. At the hospital, I am the nurse who writes. At home, I am a writer who happens to be a nurse. My writing encompasses both worlds, telling stories about people who sometimes suffer, and always hope to heal. Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in knowing more about me or my work.