ABOUT ME

As a writer I see the world as a text in progress. My life doesn’t feel real unless I am turning it into words. I love talking others through a process of discovery and organization. Whether I’m working on a business proposal, refining a client’s organizational best practices, coaching another writer, or delivering a completed grant application — writing well has always been the key to me knowing my place in the world. Sign up for my newsletter, Modern Miscellany, below.

BACKGROUND

I like to talk about my PhD and my MFA and MA as if they were accidental. All I really wanted to do was find my purpose in life, and words - mostly poetry and creative writing - were there with me since age 14 when I started to write poetry for myself. I wanted to be a writer and dreamed of living in a farm house in Nebraska where I could write and look out of windows to a beautiful view of farmland and tan swaying grasses bracketed by distant trees and criss-crossed by telephone lines. But…my parents encouraged me to get a more practical degree which I didn’t do either. I dropped out of undergrad and when I went back at 24 I did my own thing, not creative writing but an adult baccalaureate that was a mishmash of intercultural studies, art and literature, and business management. Basically a degree where I tried to please everyone including myself but ended up with something I wasn’t so passionate about. I went back to get a masters degree at 34. I was terrified. I’d put my dreams away and thought that was it—so writing poetry again and applying to go learn from real poets (Bruce Bond and Corey Marks at University of North Texas) was a terrifying leap of faith. Somehow I was accepted into the program even though I didn’t have much of a background in literature, my poetry was cryptic, and my intellect less than sharp. I’m so grateful that I was part of that program where I met some great poets and started to think writing was possible again.

Since graduating my MA in 2009 and then committing to an MFA program that changed my entire life at age 39 (newly divorced, house sold, cat in the car all the way to Greensboro ,NC from TX), it’s as if I went back to who I’d wanted to be at age 14. A writer. I may not have a farm house in Nebraska, but I do have a window full of Douglass Fur trees in Oregon.

I’ve written and published a book of poetry, select micro fiction, and am working on my first memoir. It’s not all smooth sailing, however. I also work full-time and have to fight myself to stay seated at my desk when I’d much rather get away from the blue-light glare of my monitor and go weed my garden and wonder at why the tomatoes are not doing well but the lettuce is thriving (gardens are such a perpetual mystery). Because of my professional career in fundraising, the breadth of my writing has grown in range and diversity so you’ll often find me designing grant proposals and other business communications.

This website is something of an ongoing experiment. I feel I have a lot of life experience to share and would love to coach anyone who feels frustrated by a latent desire to get back to their writing, to talk through what’s holding them back, to encourage writing as a practice to grow as a human being. Writing really is a way to document and discover the self. If you’d like to have a consult session with me, feel free to message. I can connect on a sliding fee scale. ~ Jessica