Welcome to my new website, courtesy of a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals
grant and IBé! I am grateful to finally have my content all in one place. Feel free to explore!

Spring/Summer 2025 News:

March

At annual AWP conference in Los Angeles, I was honored by the Association of Writers
and Writing Programs (AWP) with the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service
in Literature, thanks in part to my dear colleague Paige Riehl and longtime friend Denise Low, who interviewed me about my community connections not too long ago. I was also on a panel–
“Advancing Craft and Community: Different Literary Center Approaches and Strategies—talking
about the Loft Literary Center’s wonderful online learning platform Lit!Commons as the Poetry
Pathway teaching artist.

June

My long-awaited All Star Mega Music Reading took place on June 7 th at Open Book in
Minneapolis to celebrate my 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals grant. Reading
music-related work was Kris Bigalk, Heid E. Erdrich, Roy Guzman, IBé, Raymond
Luczak, Josina Manu Maltzman, Leslie Adrienne Miller, Chavonn Williams Shen, Debra Stone,
Diane Wilson, Sana Wazwaz, A.E. Wynter and sign language interpreters Patty Gordon and Mariah Mantz. We had a wonderful time!

Also June: I attended NonfictioNOW at Notre Dame. The conference featured keynotes Kiese
Laymon and Camille Dungy and some brilliant panels with Barrie Jean Borich, Marco Seiryu
Wilkinson, Kathryn Nuernberger, Kazim Ali, and many others. I chaired “Breaking the Line: The
Anti-Tradition of Lyric Flash Creative Nonfiction” with panelists April Gibson, Tommy Frank,
Anna Leahy, and Halee Kirkwood, and I was a pinch-hitter panelist for “Crafty Conversations:
Collaboration, Craft, and Creative Work” with Karen Babine, Heidi Czerwiec, Anna Leahy, and
Halee Kirkwood. The conference was deeply enlightening, and I feel ready to jump into my writing projects.

July

I am so excited to have been selected as a 2025 artist resident at Tofte Lake Center near Ely,
Minnesota! I plan to work on my many writing projects, paddle, and take some long lake swims and hang out with my fellow arts educators.

Upcoming Events

I will be performing on Friday, July 25 and Friday, September 26th with the Sonoglyph Collective at Zion Community Commons, 1697 Lafond Avenue, Saint Paul. Shows start at 7:00 p.m. There’s a
suggested 15.00 at the door donation. If you have not experienced our extemporaneous jazzy
blending of poetry and music, please join us! The show is all ages.

Thanks for reading and welcome again to my website!