Dissonance, my first novel, won the Jim Sagel Prize for the Novel while in manuscript. After its publication by the University of New Mexico Press in 2003, it was selected as a book of the year by such diverse libraries as the Tucson-Pima County Public Library & the Cincinnati Public Library. In 2004, the book was both a NPR Performance Today Summer Reading Choice & the countywide reading selection for Durango-La Plata Reads, & in 2005 it was short-listed for the PEN Southwest Book Award. My second novel, Coyote Morning, was published by UNM Press in 2004, was selected a Southwest Book of the Year, & was a runner- up for the New Mexico Presswomen’s Zia Award.
The Mind of Your Story, a book about fiction writing, was published by Writers’ Digest Books in April 2008, & was awarded 2nd place in the NM Presswomen’s Communications Contest in the Instructional Book Category.
In 2010, award-winning playwright Lynn C. Miller & I formed ABQ Writers Co-op, creating community in New Mexico for writers everywhere.. We’re offering classes, contests, the literary magazine bosque, salons, readings, & retreats. Our first book together, Find Your Story,Write Your Memoir, is out in March 2013 from University of Wisconsin Press.
I’m also a faculty member at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Writerseducation.com, & at Narrative Arts Center in Santa Fe, & teach fiction writing in private classes. I take particular joy in mentoring both beginning & more experienced writers. And oh–I also write The Lonely Writer’s Companion for Authorlink.com.
My B.A. ,with departmental honors, is from the University of Buffalo and my M.F.A. in fiction writing is from Vermont College. Throughout the 1990s, I was a member of the English department faculty at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. I love to hear from readers and writers, and cheerfully (mostly) respond to queries.
Office Managers Stellaluna and Mr. Bones