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I remember writing my first "book" at age 6, the summer before first grade. It was called "The Dog Who Learned to Talk." Later that summer I wrote its sequel, "The Dog Who Learned to Cook." I still have those stapled paper books in a box somewhere. It reminds me of when writing was just like playing: it was fun, pressure-free, and all about my own creativity.

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I'm Jewish, and I went to Hebrew School from ages 8-16. We learned about the Holocaust and I read lots of books both in school and on my own about it. Some that I remember making a big impact: Night by Elie Wiesel, Diary of Anne Frank, Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi, Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl.

Also, I read Roots at age 8 in the same years I was reading Holocaust literature. This made me terrified and horrified at man’s capacity for cruelty to fellow humans.

These reading experiences helped me form some of my core values: fairness, rightness, justice, kindness, empathy, understanding, listening to others who’s perspectives are different.

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At 23, when I was struggling with figuring out what to do with my life after college, I read Long Quiet Highway by Natalie Goldberg. It's a memoir about her life as a writer, writing teacher, and Buddhist. I loved it. I immediately read two more of her books: Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mild. Those books encouraged me and gave me renewed confidence in my own writing that I hadn’t felt since I was a kid. Also inspired my interest in Buddhism, which lead me to find the Shambhala Center in Baltimore. The creative writing MFA and Buddhism merged and lead me to move to Boulder to pursue my MFA in Writing and Poetics at Naropa.

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Information about the Creative Writing and Poetics MFA degree program.

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Because an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa doesn’t exactly give me good job prospects, I decided to teach myself a useful skill. It was the late 90s and the internet was becoming a big thing. I learned basic web design and HTML and started a new website for a New Zealand band I was a fan of. After Naropa I got a job as a web designer in 1999-2001. I hated it but at least it gave me some fundamental web design literacy that I've been able to build on to this day.

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I started teaching writing and went back to grad school to get another degree. There I began to learn to be literate in the academic field of rhetoric and composition.

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Browse information about upcoming CCCC events, including the CCCC Annual Convention