I wrote my first poem, “Papa Tree and the Seasons,” when I was 9 years old. It told the story of the life cycle of leaves, honing specifically on the fate of one little leaf who is the last one clinging to the branch before winter comes. I bound this poem into a little book, filled it with color pencil drawings, and proudly offered it up to my parents one evening. And I see now that this quite accurately represents the instincts behind most of my work to date – the desire to capture that which is most fleeting, to locate the heart of its beauty and power, sustain its life through language, and share that language with others. I have always believed that much of writing is actually about seeing, about paying attention, listening in, getting up close and personal with the details, and I have built a poetry practice - and a life practice - based on this.
I’ve worked as a freelance writer and editor for more than 25 years. In 2005, I began a weekly short-form poetry practice in 2005—”10-line Tuesday” —and have published more than 1,000 poems to date. My poems now reach more than 2,200 people each week. I’ve published seven books—two poetry collections, two books of essays, a collection of writings on grief, and a coffee-table book of portrait reenactments—as well handful of writing prompt booklets. I love working with others to help deepen and sustain their creative practices. I offer group writing classes (both live and online), and one-on-one sessions for writers looking for guidance with manuscript development, editing support, and committed cheerleading for their writing practice. In addition to my poetry newsletter, I write a Substack column, “10 lines,” and offer writing challenges I call “Collaborative Poetry Throwdowns,” providing prompts to get people exploring their world through words.
My first job out of college was at a PR firm whose primary client was Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In between writing tip sheets and press releases, I found myself immersed in the whimsical world of clowns and daredevil acrobats and dancing elephants, and I began to see the larger connection between the written page and the landscape outside of it. Since then, I have sought out creative adventures to weave into my writing life, and have designed projects that bring writing opportunities to unexpected places. My 2010 Tour de Word project was a two-month, 12,000-mile driving trip circumnavigating 30 states, during which I led writing workshops for children and adults. In early summer 2012, I launched Type Rider: Cycling the Great American Poem, riding my bicycle for 40 days and more than 1,200 miles from Amherst, MA to Milwaukee, WI towing a typewriter behind me, stopping daily to gather words from strangers in the communities I visited. I followed that with Type Rider II: The Tandem Poetry Tour, a tandem bike ride from Boulder, Colorado to Beloit, Wisconsin in July 2014, during which my spouse and I built 25 Little Free Libraries and wrote poetry for the people we met along the way. In 2016, we circumnavigated the country, turning our 1965 Covered Wagon caravan into a mobile museum of miniature books for The Tiny Book Show and led more than 60 book-making workshops for kids and adults in more than 25 states. The motivation behind these and other projects is to inspire people to share their stories, to make writing more accessible—especially to those who don’t consider themselves writers—and to build community through creative action.