About

I became a writer after getting undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and environmental studies and avoiding English lit classes like the plague. While I can barely remember how oxidation and reduction work, I still maintain that it is handy to be a journalist who isn’t scared of scientific mumbo-jumbo.

I live in Albany, New York, which I love even when it makes me crazy, and I try to keep my hands at least modestly in some of the many great activist efforts in the city, while parenting and earning a living. Sometimes I succeed better than other times.

I wrote a column called Looking Up for the local alt-weekly for almost 12 years and am currently in withdrawal as the paper has sadly gone under, but I am working on pulling most of the archive over here. (Update: I have a new column!)

As the editor of Shelterforce, I am constantly getting to learn about people doing amazing work to fight for change and build empowered healthy communities and I am honored to be of some small service to them through my work. Plus, I get to be a pedantic copy editor!

I keep a rough internal harmony by balancing that with performance poetry, contra dancing, and pub singing. I love to be asked to perform poetry. If you’re interested in having me do so at an event, or in your living room for friends, see here.

I’m sure marketing and SEO types would tell me that mixing my political columns with parenting blogging with poetry on one site is a bad plan, but that’s what it’s like in my brain, so that’s what it’s like here. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.