SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Invited Speaker, Trenton Wear Orange Rally, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Trenton, NJ, June 3, 2023.
Invited Speaker, Hopewell Borough, Wear Orange Proclamation, Hopewell, NJ, June 1, 2023.
Panelist, Teaneck International Film Festival, Screening of Mass, the 2021 fictional dramatization of two sets of parents meeting years after a school shooting in which one son was killed and the other was the shooter. Talkback with representatives of Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, Teaneck, NJ, November 19, 2022.
Invited Speaker, Coalition for Peace Action’s Rally Against Mass Shootings & America’s Gun Violence Epidemic, Hinds Plaza, Princeton, NJ, June11, 2022.
Invited Speaker, Hunterdon/Somerset County Chapter, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Wear Orange event, Franklin Township, NJ, June 4, 2022.
Keynote Speaker, New Jersey Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Wear Orange Kickoff (virtual), June 1, 2022.
INTERVIEWS
2019 Maine Literary Award: Short Works Award for Nonfiction for “What A Bullet Can Do,” which appeared in Hazlitt, March 7, 2018. Awards presented June 13 at Bangor Public Library. Interview here.
LITERARY PANELS, CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
Word Garden Writing Retreat for Women and Non-binary Creative Nonfiction Writers, Prospect Street Writers House, North Bennington, VT, March 10-13, 2023. For more information and to register, see this announcement and use this Contact Form to get in touch!
“Micro-Memoir: Making Sense of Your Life in a Flash,” Princeton Adult School, February 21-March 28, 2023, 6 weekly sessions, online. Details and registration here.
“Diving into The Wreck: How to Write the Hard Parts, Come Up for Air and Self-Care, and Finish Your Memoir,” Breakout Session, HippoCamp 2022, Nonfiction Conference, Lancaster, PA, August 13, 2022. Session recap by Lillie Gardner here.
“What We Talk About (Or Don’t) When We Talk About Guns,” Panel moderator, NonfictioNOW, Phoenix, AZ, November 1, 2018. Panelists include: Julija Sukys, Jo Scott-Coe, Lee Hancock, and Heidi Czerwiec.
“Writing Home,” Breakout session led with Parker Blaney, HippoCamp 2018, Nonfiction Conference, Lancaster, PA, August 25, 2018.
“Escape and Re-Invention: The Automobile in This Boy’s Life and Anywhere But Here,” Paper presented at annual convention of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Panel on “Horseless Carriages and Hybrid Mustangs: Travel and the Automobile in Twentieth- and Twentieth-First-Century American Literature,” Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center, Research Triangle Park,Durham, NC, November 10, 2012.
READINGS & STORYTELLING
Essay, “What I Thought I Could Love,” Local Writers Read, L/A Art Walk, September 25, 2020.
Poem, “Girl as Fuselage,” Beat Night reading from Lunation, Book & Bar, Portsmouth, NH, March 21, 2019.
Memoir excerpt, “What To Do About Albert?” The Silo Series at The Word Barn, Exeter, NH, November 3, 2017.
Memoir Excerpt, “The Gun Show,” The Silo Series at The Word Barn, Exeter, NH, November 15, 2015. Seacoastonline.com story about The Word Barn & the reading.
Memoir & Fiction, various pieces, MOSAIC Community Land Trust Gallery, Pottstown, PA, January, March, October 2012.
Memoir excerpt, “The Accident,” Bennington College, Graduate Reading Series, Jan. 2012.
Memoir excerpt, “Gun-Sitting,” Bennington Writers Series, Cornelia Street Cafe, New York City, Aug. 2011.
Memoir excerpt, “Mad Poetry Lady,” Storytelling fundraiser for Housing Initiatives of Princeton, Private residence, May 2, 2010.
Memoir excerpt, “The Accident,” The Raconteur, Metuchen, NJ, March 6, 2010.
Memoir excerpt, “Border Crossings,” Princeton Arts Council, Feb. 2009.
Novel excerpt, “Lost Women,” Princeton Arts Council, Feb. 2008.
Poetry, “Verbal Insurgency,” Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, Boulder, CO, June 2007.
Poetry, “Meow,” (excerpt), Naropa Summer Writing Program, Boulder, CO, June 2007.
Poetry, “Meow,” (excerpt), Cornelia Street Café, New York City, May 2007.
Novel excerpt, “The Re-Education of Dr. Suburban Mommy Goddess,” Princeton Arts Council, Jan. 2007.
Short story, “Homecoming Dance,” Princeton Arts Council, Jan. 2006.
Personal essay, “Ballard,” Murray-Dodge Hall, Princeton University, May 2005.
Novel excerpt, “The Geography of a Midlife Crisis,” Princeton Arts Council, Jan. 2005.
Short story, “Small World,” Princeton Arts Council , Jan. 2003.
Short story, “Baghdad54,” Frist Campus Center, Princeton University, May 2002.
MEDITATIONS & CHAPEL TALKS
Meditation on race, Phillips Church, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH, October 4, 2017, adapted from an essay, “To Suckle on Fear,” which appeared in The MacGuffin (Spring 2017).
Meditation on class, religion, and gender, Phillips Church, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH, January 7, 2016.
Chapel Talks at The Hill School, Pottstown, PA, February 20, 2015 and April 3, 2014.
LECTURES
“Beyond Paradise: Off-beat road narratives that are worth the trip”
Graduate lecture, Bennington College, 01/12. A protagonist on a journey is an ancient story line. In On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s Sal Paradise narrates the iconic American road trip. This lecture explores other voices – that of Joan Didion, Mona Simpson, and William Least Heat-Moon – to stretch perceptions of what road trip narratives can be.
Local Government & the Environment
Guest Lecturer, Rutgers University, Cook College class, 11/9/06. Spoke about NJ Open Public Records Act and founding of a public interest website: www.npdcPUBLIC.org related to contaminated site in Skillman, NJ.
Job Loss and the Family
Guest Speaker, St. Paul’s Career Networking Group, Princeton, NJ, 5/21/05 & 4/3/04.
Guest Speaker, Pay It Forward – A Career Networking Group, Ewing, NJ, 4/27/04.
Guest Speaker, Trinity Church Jobseekers, Princeton, NJ, 11/03.
Saints & Sinners: Nannies in Novels & On the Screen
Featured speaker, National Association of Nannies 10th anniversary conference, Herndon, VA. Multimedia presentation, 09/02.