author + editor + teacher
I believe that writing is an act of bravery.
I've been supporting writers since leading my first Book in a Year workshop in 2013. Since then, I’ve guided hundreds of writers through the drafting process.
My debut novel, Stiltsville, was awarded the PEN/Bingham prize, and my second novel, Sea Creatures, was a Target Book Club pick. In 2013, I co-founded the Madison Writers’ Studio with author and friend Michelle Wildgen. I’m a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and was a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Writers’ Workshop and a Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellow at the UW Institute for Creative Writing. I’ve been awarded residencies at UCross and MacDowell Colony, and my writing has been published in Sewanee Review, Newsweek, Slate, One Story, Wisconsin People & Ideas, Significant Objects, Epoch, and elsewhere. Before co-founding MWS, I taught creative writing at universities for ten years.
My online course and community, Write Your Novel, is the culmination of everything I’ve learned about starting, getting through, and finishing a novel.
XO,
books + stories + essays
let’s work together!
An intense, high-level workshop for writers of all experience levels and genres. High-level feedback and focused attention. Meant for writers who can commit to reading as well as writing.
A self-paced support program designed to help you write a stellar first draft, plus community forums, office hours with me, writing exercises, accountability check-ins, and more.
One-on-one feedback as you write or rewrite your novel or memoir. Meant for writers who want personalized feedback, deadlines, and encouragement.
Sign up for my newsletter. I don’t make much noise, I promise.
