About me
Born in New York, I attended the University of Colorado, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Clarion West (as the Carl Brandon Society's Octavia Butler scholar) and the Launchpad Astronomy Workshop. I'm also a Hedgebrook alum (2010, 2016). I started writing fiction professionally in 2000, with the publication of my first novel, Homecoming.
My writing plays with — and interrogates — issues of othering and colonization; who benefits from technology (and who doesn't); reworking classic and emblematic past works; and reclaiming Romany voices and stories
For the past decade (+), I've worked in social services, with a particular interest and expertise in crisis, crisis management, and health equity. I've been both a front-line advocate/case manager and in leadership. I train, present, and consult on trauma-informed workplace culture; managing crisis; serving marginalized and closed communities; and real/radical self-care for front line advocates and peers.
Trainings are rooted in the intersection between deep research, best practice, and lived experience.
I am also a visual artist, working primarily in acrylic, watercolors, polymer clay, and, occasionally, photography and textiles. My work betrays my obsessions with animals (especially cats), the paranormal, and the traditional arts of my Romani and Jewish ancestors.
My visual art is eclectic and often joyous – I love playing with the uncanny and creating images that are quietly unsettling in their joy.
I'm of Jewish and Romani heritage (proudly Didicai [Kalderash] and Hiloni [חִלּוֹנִי]), and was diagnosed with autism as an adult.
In my spare time, I'm an enthusiastic and clumsy knitter and general craft dilettante. I love serial commas, quadruple espressos, over-analyzing things, and Supernatural. My turn offs include ear infections, black mold, and raisins in oatmeal cookies.