I’ve built my life around writing and helping others write compelling works. My debut novel, Lilli de Jong, was one of Library Journal’s and NPR’s Best Books 2017, a finalist for The Langum Prize in Historical Fiction, one of Bustle’s “17 Best Debut Novels by Women 2017,” an Amazon and Barnes and Noble top pick, and more. My essays and other writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Glimmer Train, Writers Digest, and elsewhere. I’m an editor and a writers’ mentor through my business The Word Studio and have taught writing at five universities, at conferences, and in private workshops for decades. Clients have gone on to attend graduate programs, to self-publish, and to become traditionally published authors of acclaimed short stories, novels, and nonfiction at major publishing houses; some have become bestselling authors and prizewinners. I have an M.F.A. in fiction from the Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a B.A. in religious studies from Oberlin College.
Featured at over 150 events
· Festivals including Baltimore Book Festival, Colingswood Book Festival, History Book Fair, Historical Society Novel Conference, Katz JCC Festival, Salem Literary Festival, and Virginia Festival of the Book
· Talks at Princeton Public Library, Germantown Friends School Free Library, Haverford College, Springfield College, American Association of University Women, Hadassah, the Acorn Club, St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion, Alice Paul Institute, Germantown Historical Society, Philadelphia History Museum, and many other venues
· Bookstore events along the East Coast, including Shakespeare & Co. (NYC), Broadside Bookshop (MA), Watchung Booksellers (NJ), Bethany Beach Books (DE), and the Philadelphia area’s Open Book, Narberth Bookstore, Main Point Books, Wellington Square Bookshop, Inkwood Books, Newtown Bookshop, Doylestown Bookshop, Hockessin Bookshelf, and Capricorn Books.
Lilli de Jong, debut novel
—The fictional diary of an unwed Quaker mother in 1883 Philadelphia, Lilli de Jong was published in hardcover by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday in 2017 and released in audio book, e-book, large print, and paperback. It was a Kindle bestseller in several categories and was reviewed glowingly in over a hundred publications, including Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Library Journal, The Millions, Shelf Awareness, HuffPost, Book Riot, and Booklist. Read review excerpts here.
Selected Nonfiction
—“A Feminist’s Daughter Finds Love in the Kitchen,” in the New York Times.
—“What Makes a Story ‘Big’ or ‘Small’?” in Signature Reads. (Read here.)
—“Stories Have Made Me Who I Am,” on Read Her Like an Open Book.
—“The Power of a Diary,” on Read Her Like an Open Book.
—“In storytelling, finding joy and understanding,” Sunday Commentary section, in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
—Essay on how sensory data makes readers care, in Signature: Making Well-Read Sense of the World (read here).
—“In the Name of Fairness, Don’t Erase Women’s History,” in the Philadelphia Inquirer (read here).
—“7 Works of Historical Fiction That Changed Me,” on Knopf Doubleday Reading Group Center.
Documentary Films
—Script co-writer and team member for “Promise for a Better City (1944-1964).” Episode 3 in the series Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. Aired on 6ABC.
—Script editor and team member for “Fever: 1793.” Episode 2 in the series Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. Aired on 6ABC. Winner of three Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
—Interviewer and consultant for series on Philadelphia women’s history.
