I knew from the time I first read a chapter book on my own that I wanted to read, write, and help other people tell their stories. I’ve published poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, scholarship, and journalism in a variety of venues, including Best American Essays, The Iowa Review, and the New York Times.
My parents met at the University of Arizona, and that’s where I enrolled after high school. My bachelor’s and first master’s degrees, both from the UA, focused on poetry. I then developed an interest in autobiography, memoir, and the essay, so I went to the University of Iowa, where I did an MFA and a PhD emphasizing creative nonfiction.
Religion was extremely important to my family and consequently important to me. Although I left the faith of my childhood, I remain interested in religion and both the good and the harm it can do. That interest is reflected in two collections of essays about Mormon marriage I edited: Baring Witness: 36 Mormon Women Talk Candidly about Love, Sex, and Marriage (2016), and Revising Eternity: 27 Latter-day Saint Men Reflect on Modern Relationships (2022), both published by the University of Illinois Press. I have helped those who no longer believe write about a loss of faith and helped those who remain committed to their faith articulate why they believe and how faith helps them.
One of my primary endeavors over the past decade was caring for my father and allowing him to remain in his home as he aged. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019, which meant I spent covid lockdown with someone with dementia, who did not and could not understand why he could not go anywhere. He died at home of Alzheimer’s in May 2023. The last year of his life was brutal, for both of us, but the fact that I was able to give my father a relatively peaceful, comfortable death in his home is one of the accomplishments I’m proudest of in my entire life. I am very passionate about meeting the needs of elders and supporting those who care for them.
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