author + editor + teacher
I have news! My third novel, Girlfriending, will be published in February of 2026 by Third Rail Press. Girlfriending is a spinoff of my award-winning short story, “The Goddess of Illicit Choices.”
My debut novel, Stiltsville, was awarded the 2011 PEN/Bingham prize, and my second novel, Sea Creatures, was a Target Book Club pick. I’m a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and was a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Writers’ Workshop and a Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellow at the UW Institute for Creative Writing. I’ve been awarded fellowships at UCross and the MacDowell Colony, and my writing has been published in the Sewanee Review, Newsweek, Slate, One Story, Wisconsin People & Ideas, Significant Objects, Epoch, and elsewhere.
In 2013, I co-founded the Madison Writers’ Studio with author Michelle Wildgen. We offer high-level, deep-dive workshops live on Zoom and in person in Madison, Wisconsin. Before MWS, I taught creative writing for ten years at University of Iowa, UW-Madison, and Madison College.
My online course and community, Write Your Novel, is the culmination of everything I’ve learned about starting, getting through, and finishing a novel.
XO,
books + stories + essays
let’s work together!
An intense, high-level workshop for writers of all experience levels and genres. High-level feedback and focused attention. Meant for writers who can commit to reading as well as writing.
A self-paced support program designed to help you write a stellar first draft, plus community forums, office hours with me, writing exercises, accountability check-ins, and more.
One-on-one feedback as you write or rewrite your novel or memoir. Meant for writers who want personalized feedback, deadlines, and encouragement.
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