is a memoir writer with a poet’s sensibilities, an editor’s brain, and a teacher’s heart who also has a PhD in English.
A Writing Life
bricolage, n.
The manner or practice of creating art from varied, miscellaneous materials already in existence.
In writing memoir, I am weaving a story of leaving and becoming… a story of finding and losing a faith… a story of writing and life… a journey into and out of… and a way of asking, answering, and asking again… Who is this woman?
The memoir chronicles my search for spiritual meaning through a series of choices—some easy, some agonizing. As a naïve, secular Jewish teenager, I converted to Christianity and devoted my life to serving God, a path that led to a little house on the Navajo Nation. From a sincere beginning, the life built on patriarchal foundations and cultural irrelevance could not stand. I had to leave both faith and marriage to discover faith in myself. Traversing the physical geography of California, Arizona, and New Mexico along old Route 66, the memoir traces a parallel interior journey toward independence and wholeness.
At some point in our lives, we find ourselves asking, “How did I get here? What are my options?” Answers may be framed in harrowing true stories of escape from religious extremism and trauma, inspirational tales of overcoming, or prescriptive self-help guides. I’ve constructed my memoir from personal experience and empathy for women who are asking hard questions and making difficult choices while articulating for themselves what it means to leave familiar safety for an uncertain future.