I’m a North Dakota woman married to a man from the Netherlands. We’ve lived and worked on four of this beautiful planet’s continents. I’ve always been a reader of books but didn’t come to writing till I was in my forties.

My first publications were essays about living in Zambia and were published in various journals locally and later nationally.

My first book, So Many Africas: Six Years in a Zambian Village, (Autumn House Press) came out in 2015 and won both the Autumn House Prize and the Sarton Women’s Literary Award. It is now available in paperback, e-book, and in audio format!

My next book, The Clean Daughter: A Cross-Continental Memoir, was published by NDSU Press and is available in hardback. The Clean Daughter was chosen by the Library of Congress as one of its Great Reads Books! What an honor!

I love knitting, reading, hiking, acrylic paining, book binding, cooking vegetarian and vegan dishes, and bird watching. Flowers and strange vegetables make me happy.

In 2021, I suffered from a life altering brain injury. I am currently writing about that experience and working on a third memoir.