When my sisters and I learned there was a limit to the
number of picture books we could take out from the library (5
books), we combined our potential and checked out 15 books a
week. We knew every book in the children's library and what
shelves they were on. No kidding. When we exhausted the picture
books, we graduated to chapter books and then middle grade. We
loved mysteries, biographies, and fantasies, but our favorites
were funny poems and illustrations. Poor mom had to make perpetual trips to the library.
I've never forgotten the joy of having access to so many books.
I'm convinced that stirred me to choose writing for a career.
With an MFA in Writing and a Doctor of Arts degree, I now teach
writing at a hospital school alongside incredible RNs who help nursing students care for others:
an amazing experience.
Every day is different in a hospital school, for sure.
Events there remind me of the following quote:
“No one steps into the same river twice, for
it's not the same river and they're not the same person.”
—Heraclitus
My animated digital poems
have appeared
in places such as the
BBC - Arts - Poetry (archive.org)
and the Brazilian book
Poesia Eletronica; Negociacoes com os processos digitais.A number of my video poems
have been featured at
Mezzo Cammin.
The French Poetry Review, in
England,published my article about the
poet Guillame Apollinaire's predicting
digital poetry.
My MFA in Creative Writing is from Vermont College, and the middle-grade book I wrote for that degree,
Child of War, set in
Belfast, Northern Ireland, received a small book review in the
New York Times book review and was named a Notable
Book in Social Studies by the National Council of Social
Studies.
My doctoral dissertation Digital Poetry and the Greek
Notion of Nous, explores how the human mind brings order to
words and images. I received my doctorate from Franklin Pierce
University.
For over a decade, I eagerly
published other poets and fiction writers in my online literary journal,
The Tower Journal, which featured poets such as Kay Ryan.
Back issues of The Tower Journal can be seen in the
WayBackMachine.
I teach fiction and poetry for the
Master of English and Creative Writing Program at Southern New
Hampshire University, and I'm most pleased to be teaching writing to
nursing students at St. Joseph School of Nursing in Nashua, New Hampshire.
