Jane Austen, My Best Friend
Like so many born in mid-century suburbia, I enjoyed an idyllic childhood and a miserable adolescence. I mitigated loneliness by reading novels; Jane Austen became my best friend. After graduating from Oberlin College with High Honors and few skills, I moved to New York City so I wouldn’t have to buy a car.
I earned a PhD in English Literature at Columbia. My dissertation, Jane Austen and the Limits of Epistolary Fiction, argues that Austen uses letters to teach her characters and her readers the importance of close reading, a skill at which I excel.
Vermont
The good things about graduate school included reading great books, teaching writing at Columbia, and living in New York City. The bad thing about New York City was summer. In 1984, I broke down and bought a car so I could spend the summer in Vermont. I’ve been here ever since.
The bucolic splendor of Vermont was quickly offset by adulthood: marriage, motherhood and mayhem. But even while dreaming of order, quiet, and time to write amidst the noise of family life, I taught writing, led reading & discussion groups in libraries around the state, and lectured wherever invited.
The Writing Life
I also managed to write, starting with a parenting column in the local paper, then book reviews, editorial columns, features in regional magazines. For twelve years I was a commentator on Vermont Public Radio, telling stories to create change. During this time, I also wrote for two major medical centers, writing profiles of medical researchers and translating complex medical research into language a patient can understand; and, for sixteen years I managed a rural medical practice, which you can read about here.
Into the Wilderness, my first published novel, received the 2011 Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Regional Fiction and was recognized by the Vermont Library Association for its “Sense of Place.” I’m currently working on a memoir about learning to hunt, the other two novels in The Orton Trilogy, and blogging about Living in Place
Living My Dream
I’m living my dream: writing, speaking, and teaching while living a low-impact life in rural Vermont, where I raise vegetables and poultry, walk the dog, practice yoga, and end each day cooking dinner with my spouse.
It’s a good life.