About the teacher and writer:

I was born a lover of words in England, raised a lover of books in Texas, and now live as a lover of language and writing in Washington State. I am a poet and a teacher of writing at Whatcom Community College. I also like wine and bicycles. A lot.

On a more serious note, I have a BA in English Literature from Western Washington University, and an MA in Creative Writing with a focus in Poetry from the same institution.  I have been teaching at Whatcom Community College since 2009, and I teach everything from composition to literature to college study skills and, of course, creative writing!  Creative Writing is a joy to teach: it is such a pleasure to see students discover and develop their own voices.  I think it is the class where I am most likely to see students genuinely surprise themselves.

I believe that creative writing involves two complementary roles: the visionary and the ruthless editor--you have to develop both qualities if you want to write poems and stories that will move others.  In my class, you can expect a variety of exercises geared towards both.  We will play surrealist games to free ourselves from the inner critic, and then we will welcome the critic back in.  We will read a variety of poems and stories to improve our ability to read like writers to teach our critic what to look for, and we will invite others into our revision process.

Samples of her work: