Inspired by her first writers conference (Wesleyan!) in 2003, a gift for her 60th birthday, she has worked to develop herself as a writer. A local writers group, national writers’ conferences, and generous artists' residencies have provided her literary education. She has been awarded scholarships to the Bread Loaf and Wesleyan Writers Conferences and has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale, VCCA, and Hambidge Center for the Arts. Her work has appeared in both literary and professional journals and been included among Notables in Best American Essays. Her book, Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass: A Psychologist’s Memoir, was selected by Lee Gutkind for the 2013 Santa Fe Writers Project nonfiction grand prize. It will be published by SFWP in May 2015.