I was born sixth of seven children, into a noisy, crowded and loving household, in a house bumped up against Pacific Northwest second-growth woodlands, open fields and orchards. My earliest memories are of wandering among Douglas firs and alders, my legs skirted in bracken ferns, ever-wary of stinging nettles. My five sisters and I harvested hazelnuts and apples, blackberries and rhubarb, the promise of pie luring us back into the kitchen where all nine of us gathered each evening for supper. It was a gentle life, and provided the landscape from which my writing has grown.

As the only of my siblings to complete a four-year college degree, I studied verse writing at the University of Washington, and continued there in the Graduate Writing Program. 

In 1991, after the death of the deeply inspiring and beloved University of Washington poet and professor Nelson Bentley, I felt moved to initiate some small act to honor his legacy, and pulled together a writing group, out of which, three years later, Floating Bridge Press was born. The writing group continued to meet for nearly 30 years before dispersing, and FBP, under new leadership, continues to play a vital role in the Washington State poetry community.

My first poems were published in 1975, in the newsprint publication Yakima, and since then have appeared in many magazines. My book-length manuscript, A House, Undone, is available from MoonPath Press.

I chair the curating committee for Easy Speak Seattle, a twice-monthly open mic venue that also features local musicians and writers. I'm a lifelong resident of Seattle, and work in Human Resources at Seattle Cider Company.