About Me

I’ve always loved reading and writing stories, from the time I was very little and living in Merrick, New York. When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a novel called The Ryland Revolt and tried to get it published. It was rejected all around, but that didn’t stop me from writing.

After graduating from Calhoun High School, I went to Johns Hopkins University to study creative writing. I wrote the first draft of Standing for Socks my senior year in a class called The Long Work. My classmates and professors provided invaluable support, encouragement, and criticism that helped shape Fara and her story. After graduating from the Writing Seminars program in 2005, I spent a year in London, England, reading, traveling, and getting my Masters in Children’s Literature at Roehampton University.

I now live in a rowhouse in Baltimore, Maryland with my fantastic husband Grant, who I met on the Johns Hopkins table tennis team. (We don’t play much ping pong anymore, but when we do Grant always wins.) I teach Writing for Children at the University of Baltimore and run creative writing workshops for adults, teens, and children throughout the city. Most days, though, you can find me—for at least an hour or two—in a coffee shop, drinking hot chocolate and writing on my laptop.

My first novel, Standing for Socks, was released in March 2009 from Atheneum, and my second, The Trouble with Mark Hopper, is available now from Dutton.