I’m a writer who loves stories, community, and seeking hope in dark places.

Raised in the rural, American south, I learned early on that humans are contradictory. The people who raised me held unconscionable beliefs about race, gender and equality, but it was the writer in me that first called their bluff. The writer in me questioned, listened, and formed her own beliefs about what was right. It is my calling to nurture that writer in all of us, the vein that runs from heart to word, the symbols that we use to define our core and ethics.

My topics range from self-improvement to creative non-fiction. Early success in poetry led to a Young Arts award, the Archibald Rutledge Poetry Prize, and an Asheville Writer’s Workshop prize judged by Nikki Giovanni. I studied creative writing at The Fine Arts Center, The South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts, and Wofford College where my novella, The Mansion House, was chosen as a runner-up for the Ben Wofford Prize. The writers who nurtured me, encouraged me, and pushed me to explore the written word beyond my self-imposed limitations created a foundation that has supported me throughout my life.

I left a career in journalism, covering the arts and food for southeastern publications, to create Bramblewood Stables. I thought, at the time, that farm work would give me time to complete a novel. Twenty-years later, I am writing that book, but the story wouldn’t be possible without the farm that brought me here.

All my current work can be found on the Bramblewood Stables’ Blog and also on Medium. Scroll here to explore how the solitary art of writing helps me connect with the world.

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