I write urgent stories about people who care.

About me

I’m a care worker with a BA from Stanford, two graduate degrees, and a certificate that enables me to make your hospital bed while you’re still in it. I’m also a writer, and founder of the Shannaghe residency in Maine. 

For much of my writing life, I worked as a free lancer and later as a tech executive. I’ve written for Chicago Tribune, Self, Outside, and other publications while developing children’s museums, producing massive websites for prestigious institutions (Harvard, Yale Law School, Mount Holyoke), and publishing two nonfiction books. For five years, I wrote a column for Vegetarian Times, answering crucial questions from readers, such as Can dry cleaning be hazardous? (yes) and Do cows explode when they’re not milked? (no).

Recent stories have also appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Entropy, and Hippocampus. Plus there’s a range of awards from literary magazines and arts organizations—including Hunger Mountain, Florida Review, London Independent Story Prize, Writers at Work, Vermont College, Ragdale, Monson Arts, and elsewhere; I’ve received two Pushcart nomination.  I serve as a nonfiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine.

Meanwhile, I’ve pioneered courses for shut-ins across the country using an innovative Skype-type platform for CJE, and I’m trained in the Wise Aging practice, which I’ve adapted in my secular teaching. I’m a member of NDWA Homecare Workers United, the National Association of Health Care Assistants. 

I continue to see elderly clients, and I’ve recently moved with my husband and therapy-dog-in-training, Eleanor Roosevelt Reilly, from Chicago to Maine.