“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.”
– James Joyce
Storytelling is my technology of choice for transformation. In fact, it can save, or at least change, lives.
I am proud to serve on the Center for Healthcare Narratives Advisory Board for MedStar Health Institute for Quality and Safety. It’s mission is “elevating healthcare stories that matter to help shape a new culture for healthcare delivery.” Our projects include documentary films, a medical narrative literary journal and storytelling workshops for healthcare professionals.
With Emily Rapp Black, Annemarie Hauser and Stacy Bierlein, I am a co-founder of Women Writers Rise @RiseWriters.
I believe writing should be personal, inclusive, captivating, insightful, authentic and imaginative.
My Personal Truth(s).
Nothing lights a fire under me more than an opportunity to uncover the truth or find meaning in this complicated existence we share. I am always searching to see the world or experience it in a different way. I hunt for the underlying, smaller truths, hoping to shine a light on what might be getting missed– the minority of stories– a brutal truth.
I care deeply about children, LGBTQIA issues, women’s empowerment issues, social justice, and encouraging self expression. As a lesbian from the South, I love to delve into my own subcultures and have a passion for isolated cultures and communities especially rural ones.
I’m currently writing a coming of age, coming out memoir set in the late 80s and early 90s. It chronicles my first lesbian encounter (when I was arrested for being gay), my grandmother’s suicide, a secret life of love and crime, and my struggle to overcome a near-death cocaine addition where my form of rehabilitation was joining the Republican Party on my college campus.
The Power of Story.
A flashback to middle school science class. Remember Photosynthesis?It’s the process where plants and organisms convert light energy into chemical energy for activity fuel. Simply put, it’s energy transformation.
To me, storytelling is a similar process with the same immense potential.
How? It’s our method of shining light on our lives so we are nourished, inspired and empowered to action.
Imagination is our light bringing our real lives and our make believe ones to life to illuminate us all.