I'm an award-winning novelist and writing teacher with more than 25 years of experience at the college, graduate, and post-graduate level helping writers hone their craft, love to learn, and stay in the chair long enough—with all the necessary patience, energy, and hutzpah—to get it done right and get their books on the shelves. I've won writing residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Bucknell University, the Bread Loaf Writers' Colony, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference, among others, and teaching positions at Brandeis University, Boston University, Emerson University, and Smith College. In 2010, I co-founded and now lead the GrubStreet Novel Incubator program, an MFA-level writing intensive in novel revision which has a higher publication rate than most MFA programs. My novels, The Quickening (2010) and Bottomland (2016), have won awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Mass Book Awards "Must Reads", the Center for Fiction's First Novel Shortlist, and the Iowa Center of the Book's All Iowa Reads. In 2022, I started the 7am Novelist webinar, podcast, and writing challenge to help writers at all levels. Purchases from this page support local bookstores and the 7am Novelist project. Want to help your local store more? Purchase from their shop on this site. Better yet, take this list and purchase directly from their online or brick-and-mortar store.