Writer’s Bio

I earned my MFA at the Rainier Writers’ Workshop in 2012, where I wrote poetry and translated poems from Russian. Since 2013, I’ve been fixated on essays, creative nonfiction, and teaching. I’ve been awarded grants from Portland’s Regional Arts & Cultural Council (2023, 2016), a special mention in Pushcart Prize XLI: Best of the Small Presses (2017), and writing residencies.

Current Projects

I’m seeking representation for a memoir, "Living for Art and Other Lies.” My memoir involves a childhood spent seeking home in the opera where my mother performed. The issue was, I kept getting cast in silent parts. After an adolescence spent watching sopranos die onstage and then watching my own precious mother struggle and die, I had to look elsewhere for home. I thought I would find it at an acting conservatory in Russia, but soon realized that no performance would get me the love I was looking for.

Singer on stage with a flute and costumed animals onstage

Me (far right) in a bear suit at age 16 for “The Magic Flute” in Washington, DC. My job was to roll over and after, skulk off the stage.

I’ve started writing a book of essays about working as an urban public school teacher and needing to leave the field due to compassion fatigue. The book will also include stories about the wild, wooly world of substitute teaching.

Newsletter

I have a Substack newsletter called The Soft Underbelly. Subscribe to join in conversations about vulnerability and maintaining a creative life. Also, I’ll include pictures of cute fuzzy bellies (not mine).

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