Major: MFA Creative Writing and Poetics
B.A. Anthropology
I graduated with a BA degree in Anthropology from SUNY Buffalo in 2005. I have spent the past several years working in research, which resulted in a good deal of experience with animal behavior, as well as two scientific publications about hormones and cognition. Currently, I am in the new MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics program here at UWB. My creative writing sprouted from my first experience doing field work in anthropology. I lived in Puerto Rico for one year and did behavioral research with free-ranging monkeys. I started writing stories about my adventures on the island and developed a passion for creative writing. During college, I had only suspected that I could write. It wasn't until I shared my monkey stories with family and friends that I realized I had a capacity for creative writing. I also realized that the hours I spent in my hammock reading books directly affected the quality of my work.
After I left Puerto Rico, I changed locations annually and have lived in South Carolina, Virginia, Boston, Western Massachusetts, London and Baltimore. I love learning about people's cultural backgrounds, and I appreciate all of the diversity I have been fortunate enough to encounter throughout my travels. These new passions have had a serious impact on my life, and in my evolution as a writer I have discovered the importance of collaboration and how working with others is just as important to my improvement as a writer as is reading and writing itself.