After relocating to California, I received several degrees from their university system. While studying for my masters in Library and Information Services at Berkeley, I participated in a student exchange program with the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I completed my formal education with a degree in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco. My careers spanned a number of fields, including food service, teaching, and records management at a national lab. Volunteer work included afterschool tutoring, second language literacy programs, and WriteGirl in California. Retiring to Oregon, I currently lead a group of poetry readers at the local Senior Studies Institute.

 

Some days I believe that every poem I write is in defiance of the silences that Tillie Olsen explored. Some days I am filled with the ego Richard Hugo described as "the next thing you put down belongs not for reasons of logic, good sense, or narrative development, but because you put it there."