I am the author of Kept Animals, a novel, longlisted for the First Novel Prize, and the collection, If I’d Known You Were Coming, winner of the John Simmons Award for Short Fiction. You can learn more about my books and the people and institutions who’ve supported my work here, but I want you to know why I created Story Therapy.

The short answer is that I love helping other writers find their ah-ha moment; when we move beyond their story’s beats and access the heart of it. In addition to being an author, my background—across disciplines and experiences—has taught me how to support other artists as they navigate and transcend the inevitable difficulties of making authentic work. In other words, this isn’t just a side-gig for me, it’s a calling.

I grew up surrounded by artists. My mother was a playwright and then a screenwriter, producing some of the best television shows at that time while I goofed around on the sets, chatting up the crew. My stepfather is an actor, whom you’d recognize if I were the name-dropping sort. And as a little girl, I sat in the seats of my father’s Chicago theatre company, studying the ways he directed from one rehearsal to the next, until the show was ready for opening night.

This immersion in story-making has informed my writing, but it also taught me how much persistence, support, and community is required for one’s vision to come to life and building community is another one of my aims here.

Add to my formative experiences an MFA in Fiction and twenty plus years of professional story-centered work: from story-editing on TV dramas, to writing commercials and brand identity, to teaching on behalf of various writing programs, mentoring Pen America and The Center for Fiction Emerging Voices Fellows, as well as editing bestselling authors. And at every step of the way, I have seen how our personal narratives intersect with—and often stop us from—writing the stories we need to write, but that through the untangling of these threads our best work can emerge.

My editorial support has always gone beyond the pages a writer shares with me but to further inform and strengthen my practice, I am continuing my own education, currently focusing on Narrative Therapy. Until my next degree is complete, I can’t replace an actual therapist—but I can be far more helpful with your writing, offering you all I know from a lifetime of studying craft and decades of connecting with fellow artists. My greatest joy continues to be the light in a writer’s eyes when the curtains part and they recognize just how powerful their story can be.

I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work with you.