I grew up on five acres in the country near Mt. Vernon, Virginia in the Washington, DC area. My dad called it “George Washington’s tobacco patch.” At the College of William and Mary, I majored in English, graduating in 1969.

Moving to North Carolina, I became director of a day care center and volunteered as a peer counselor in human sexuality and women’s health. Due to my younger sister’s struggle with depression and addiction and the resulting family turmoil, I had my first experience with therapy. My therapist knew all my secrets yet encouraged me in my dream of becoming a therapist myself. I attended the UNC School of Social Work, receiving my Master’s in Social Work in 1976. During my forty years as a Clinical Social Worker, I gained much insight into human nature and relationship difficulties, not to mention my own self-care.

My love of literature continued as I read for pleasure and participated in book groups over the years. Writing poetry was my first love. In the early 1980s, I joined the Poet’s Co-op at the Carrboro Arts Center where I learned a lot about the craft of poetry. Later I took a few courses in fiction and memoir writing and began to envision having time for writing once I retired from clinical practice.

As retirement approached, I attended a five-day silent retreat in the NC mountains to contemplate my desire to write. Those days in the beauty of nature led to deep reflection and resulted in a clear sense of direction. Yes, I want to write, I have always written, I am a writer.

I am a member of the NC Writers’ Network. I have published a story in Motherscope Magazine and poetry in Friends Journal and Iris: the UNC Journal of Medicine, Literature and Visual Art and The Scanner: Poems from the Art School’s Poetry Workshop.

I live in Chapel Hill with my husband, one dog and two cats.