Welcome…
Bio:
I live in Juneau, Alaska which is a town of
30,000 writers, fishermen, senators, and average folk making a living in
Alaska. The town nests on a small
lip of land between the Coast Mountains and the Inside Passage of the
Pacific Ocean. Juneau is in the middle
of the Tongass National Forest which is the largest temperate rainforest in
the world.
I teach creative writing at the University of
Alaska Southeast during the winters.
During the summers I cruise with my husband and baby on our 37’
Tayana sailboat.
Artistic Statement:
I characterize my
work as primarily lyric, with a special focus on use of the image as a form
of imitation. I have been
particularly interested lately to see how the subconscious or honest self,
and the stories we know, emerge from work with images.
If I begin with an image
from the world around me, particularly the natural world as a primal
source, does this connect me more intimately with my own imagistic
associations, or does it move me outside the comfort of self, and into a
wider exploration of the world around me?
I’ve been focusing on both natural images, and on images of women,
in this study.
As part of this
exploration, I am studying the poems of Mary Oliver, whom I find to be one
of the strongest lyrical image poets writing today. She is teaching me how to connect larger
abstract concepts with the images of nature, while avoiding the simplistic
formula of symbol.
I believe that all writing
is an act of imitation and discovery—that what makes writing matter is the
core of the intangible humanness of ourselves.
