Bio

I was born and raised in North Yorkshire, England. I also lived and studied in Cambridge, England, and I received a BA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex.

While I was studying at Sussex I worked for the local daily newspaper, The Evening Argus, and also freelanced, specializing in arts and entertainment pieces. After graduating I worked for a publishing company based in Brighton as a senior editor. In addition to overseeing the production of five monthly magazines, I commissioned and edited work, wrote feature articles, and reviewed books.

I started freelancing full-time in 1998, writing for a wide variety of publications, including The Guardian, Time Out, and Spike Magazine. In 1999 I moved to New York and worked as an editor for Madison, an international lifestyle, arts and entertainment magazine.

In 2003 I received my MFA from Columbia University. I have been awarded residencies and fellowships from the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Jentel Artist Residency Program. I have been teaching, working as a freelance editor, and coaching writing clients for six years.

In 2007 I qualified as a Master Practitioner in NLP, a communications tool used by many life coaches. From 2006-2009 I taught fiction, creative nonfiction and MFA prep workshops through the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. I am also a contributing editor at Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics and author of a writing advice column for The Faster Times. I live in Brooklyn with my husband, Lucas Thorpe, and our dog, Adry.