On my journey to become a poet and a writer, I have learned to write from that threshold of what I know and don’t know. To let questions be my guide, questions, such as how does that ant not lose the honeysuckle she carries against the wind? And follow the question wherever it leads.
In 2023, I earned my M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University where advanced-study courses in the novel, creative nonfiction, poetry, and lyric essay sharpened my skills as a writer and reader. In 2006, I graduated from Stephens College with a B.F.A. in creative writing and moved to Ireland to earn an M.A. in Women’s Studies from the National University of Ireland Galway.
While living in Cork City for nearly ten years, I fully stepped into the world of poetry and took my place in it as a poet. I remember the exact workshop led by dub poet Lillian Allen in 2012 where she listened to me read and then exclaimed that there was honey in my voice. “Call yourself a poet”, she stated as simply and earnestly as an invocation. I did. I do. And I often repeat her advice to other poets unsure of their hearts’ calling.
Calling myself a poet has meant that I take action to bring poetry into the lives of others, and I am as committed to teaching as I am to writing. I believe in the power of writing to heal and connect people and create community. I have experienced how self-expression is a powerful tool for healing and personal agency. One of the most rewarding sessions with adult clients was fusing my passion for poetry and advocacy by leading a poetry workshop with survivors of domestic abuse.
I have developed and taught poetry and writing practice workshops to diverse groups in academic and non-academic environments including an assisted living facility, a domestic violence shelter, in the life-long learning program at the University of South Carolina, Beaufort, and the Pat Conroy Literary Center, among others.
My commitment to my vocation as a poet has led me to an abundance of possibilities and achievements. I won the Starkey Flythe Jr. Memorial Prize in Poetry 2025 for my poem “Sonogram Vision” and the Oliver Bowman Award in Poetry 2024 for “Sunset.” My chapbook manuscript RocknRollCinderellaJezebel was a finalist for the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition 2025 and a semi-finalist for the Baltic Writing Residency Chapbook Competition 2023 judged by D.A. Powell.

As a poet and a writer, I have learned to welcome the challenge and appreciate the joy of writing as my sanctuary. I remind myself to remain in a space of open awareness and uncertainty to allow acceptance to unfold. To feel openness and presence when I write, I set aside my long-held dreams and lean into a simple practice—write each day, participate in regular workshops, submit to four literary journals and competitions a month, nurture friendships with other writers, carry a notebook, sit among trees, and always, always let my questions be my guide.
As my poetry often stems from my experiences, I also write creative nonfiction and enjoy writing hybrid forms and lyric essays with surrealist movements to create heightened areas of emotional truths. My essay “Mom at the Center of My Venn Diagram on Everything.” I’ve also studied screenwriting and have co-written a screenplay about a friendship between two women disguised as Union soldiers during the Civil War.

I am interested in this project for the opportunity to create poetry that pays attention to what is essential but often overlooked, undervalued,, reduced to assumptions and reveal the particulars that make life bright and unique, make life sing and stirs emotions in us.
I am excited to look closely at, to celebrate, imagine, dream about, be inspired by, and, ultimately, to care for the people who are served by our city’s buses and care for this vital system.
I hope to learn more about my neighbors and those who share this city with me. I hope to daydream and be a curious observer on the bus, to learn about myself and those around me. I hope to see the city in a new way and share the emotional truths of my experience with others.

I came to Roanoke to study creative writing in the MFA program at Hollins University. I have been creatively energized here since I first arrived to become part of a community of writers at Hollins and that has expanded to include open mics and literary groups off campus.
I am also connected to dance communities here and a yoga community. My creativity is nurtured and inspired by these various opportunities to connect with other creatives and to commune with the beauty of the natural world here. My eyes are uplifted by the constant yet ever-changing mountains. I love slipping into their woods when I need to refill my creative well and listen to my inner voice the only way one can under the whispers of trees and birdsong.