About

I am a Chicago writer of kidlit, poems, and essays, and my career has also focused on disability rights and services. I hold a BA in writing/English with honors from Columbia College and an MFA with distinction from National University. My picture book, Saturday at the Food Pantry, illustrated by Brizida Magro, was Parents Magazine’s October 2021 book club selection, and my picture book Please Be OK: A Story About Addiction, illustrated by Anastasiya Kanavaliuk, will be out in October 2024. I completed the 24-hour Poetry Marathon in 2023 and 2024, and two poems were selected for their anthologies. My works have also appeared in LADYBUG magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, and It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure.

Featured Work

Saturday at the Food Pantry

2021
The illustrator is the amazing Brizida Magro. The cover shows Molly, smiling, putting a box of cookies in a grocery cart. Nearby are shelves of food: oatmeal, powdered milk, rice, beans, sugar, and spaghetti noodles and sauce. The shelves have signs: "Tak

Saturday at the Food Pantry is a children's picture book about food insecurity, inspired by my own childhood experience of growing up on food stamps. The illustrator is the wonderful Brizida Magro. In Saturday at the Food Pantry, Molly and her mom don’t have much food, so they visit their local food pantry. Molly’s happy to get food until she sees her classmate Caitlin, who's embarrassed to be at the food pantry. Molly's mom also seems ashamed. Molly helps both Mom and Caitlin realize that everyone needs help sometimes.

Other Works

  • Please Be OK: A Story About Addiction

    2024