She earned a B.A. in Art (with emphasis in drawing and printmaking) at the University of Maine and has taught art at the Skitikuk School in Maine and the Montessori Elementary School of Ithaca. She has also worked as a graphic artist in various advertising agencies, and in the Department of Public Relations at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. At Cornell, she earned the M.F.A. in Fiction and the Ph.D. in English Literature with a concentration in Women's Literature.