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 a residency at the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony and a fellowship from The Ragdale Foundation, and I have been teaching, working as a freelance editor, and coaching writing clients since 2002. I am currently working on my first book. In 2007 I qualified as a Master Practitioner in NLP, a communications tool used by many life coaches. Most recently I have been running a creative nonfiction writing workshop as part of the Sackett Street Writers' Workshops. I am also a nonfiction editor at Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics.

I live in Brooklyn with my husband, Lucas Thorpe, and our dog, Adry.