With an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska, my work has appeared in Terrain, The Montreal Review,The Battered Suitcase, SN Review, Thumbnail, 2River, and The Platte Valley Review. My novel, "The Smell of Smoke," was a finalist for the Pen America Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and received the Nebraska Arts Council’s Distinguished Artist Award. My second novel, Grace Remains, is up for grabs. An award for residency at The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and an Individual Arts Scholar award from the Nebraska Arts Council round out my accomplishments. I facilitate four to six writing workshops a year and was a longtime board member for The Backwaters Press, which, I am proud to say, was picked up as an imprint of The University of Nebraska Press. I currently serve on the American board of The Abrahamic Reunion, a small, highly respected peace building organization working in the Holy Land. In my spare time I like to fix up old buildings and houses, hang out with lovely neighbors, family and friends, and volunteer for the Abrahamic Reunion.