You’re dad came home from Back-To- School-Night, or Curriculum Night, or whatever it’s called and said that in your English class this year, you’ll write a memoir. “I wonder who could help her with that,” your dad said. I could help you, but it’d probably be better if I didn’t. For the same reason I insist your dad go to… View Post

Dear Ollie, Here is a story about your oldest cousin’s baptism. She was wearing a white and blue dress and it was the kind of dress that billowed out so that if she wanted to, if she could at the time, your cousin could’ve rocked a nice twirl, showing off her chubby legs. She wasn’t walking at the time, so… View Post

I was part of a T.S. Poetry Press writing retreat this weekend, and led a workshop on the possibilities in writing conflict. This was part of my lecture:   I subscribe to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary “Word of the Day” emails with the idea – or hope – that I’ll use whatever word I learned in my writing that day. The morning… View Post

My lovely and hilarious friend Sonya and I are excited to announce we are teaching a workshop called Reading Well + Writing Well: Building a Writer’s Toolbox beginning in September. Sonya and I designed a 10-week course based on the belief that reading well helps us write well. Each week, we will give both a reading and a writing assignment… View Post

This was originally on a website called, “Altarwork,” but sadly the site is no longer, so I am sharing it on the blog. It is what I read when I graduated from Seattle Pacific University in 2014.   The summer I was eleven I became a Christian, my best friend since I was five called me up to say she… View Post