Storytelling is looking someone in the eye and making a human connection. And then another, and another. And another. It is the best way I know to feel a little less alone in this world, and I strive as a journalist, a yoga teacher and human to build more of those connections.
I’ve spent most of my career on the East Coast. In 2017, I returned to Oregon in 2017 after my father was diagnosed with dementia. I now live in Portland, with my husband and our dog, Mojie, in a 118-year-old foursquare house with a bright pink door.
I’m currently writing Windfall, a narrative nonfiction memoir set on the prairies of North Dakota. Windfall starts with a mysterious email that arrives from my mother shortly before her death, saying she’d inherited mineral rights. I set out at the height of the oil boom to unearth the story behind the bequest, still grieving my mother’s death and trying to have a child of my own.
When I’m not reporting, you’ll find me on my yoga mat or teaching a yoga class. To me, yoga and journalism are both about spreading light, shifting perspective and above all, making human connections.