vaughn has expressed that the talents of poetry are inherited and their pursuit inevitable. she herself gave up her career of seventeen years in advertising to pursue writing full time, to her family and friends’ dismay. she began this transition by working in a newspaper to build her skills then fully committing to poetry. she is the only recipient of the mark twain fellowship from elmira college. her time in a place mark twain once lived in inspired her work, "foretasting heaven: conversations with twain at quarry farm."