Born in Newark, NJ. Have lived in North Carolina, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, and Hawaii. Educated at Yale (student); U-Maryland, College Park (graduated BA English); U-Hawaii at Manoa (MA with Poetry Thesis and PhD in English). Studied Poetry with Rod Jellema, Clarence Major, Marvin Bell, Naomi Shihab Nye, Terese Svoboda, Nell Althizer, Frank Stewart, Susan Schultz. Associate Professor of English Emerita, Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu, Hawaii. Retired 2015. Entered Carmelite Monastery, Kaneohe, Hawaii, in 2014 to study to be a Carmelite cloistered nun and left in 2019. Fully retired and loving it!
Detailed Writers Credentials:
Education
- Ph.D. English, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Critical Dissertation: Oceanic Epistemology and Representations of Oceanic Epistemology in Oceanic Literature, 239 pages.
- M.A. English, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Thesis of Poetry, Between the Silence, ~65 pages. Studied and worked with poets Marvin Bell, Naomi Shihab Nye; Terese Svoboda; Susan Schultz; Nell Altizer, Frank Stewart.
- B.A. English, University of Maryland, College Park, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Studied and worked with Rod Jellema, Clarence Major.
- Also studied at Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Work Experience
- Literature Teacher, High School in the Community, through Yale Council on Community Affairs, New Haven, CT.
- GED Teacher Aide and Teacher, Adult Basic Education, New Haven CT.
- English Department Poetry Series Student Coordinator, University of Maryland.
- Co-Editor of Nethula Journal, with Essex Hemphill & Kathy Elaine Anderson, Washington, DC.
- English Instructor, Lacaze-Gardner Business College, Washington, DC.
- Graduate English Department Teaching Assistantship, University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
- Poetry Support Group "Healing through Poetry," University of Hawai'i Women's Center.
- English Department Lecturer, University of Hawai'i.
- English Adjunct Instructor, Hawai'i Pacific University.
- Full-time English Instructor, Hawai'i Pacific University.
- Assistant Professor of English, Hawai'i Pacific University.
- Associate Professor of English, Hawai'i Pacific University.
- Editor, HAWAI'I PACIFIC REVIEW, HPU's high quality literary magazine, 16 yrs.
- Current and Recent: Working Poet/Retired Associate Professor of English; Poetry Editor for Decolonial Passage and for Agape Review (both online); Book Reviewer for Agape Review. Guest Poet at Dr. Angela Gili’s LIT 2100 course at HPU, Feb. 1, 2023. Conducting poetry workshop with two young women, March 28-May 18, 2023. To begin teaching for Writers for Ukraine on April 10, 2023, once a week with one student.
Poetry Publications:
In-house Short Book Series For Carmelite Monastery Benefactors:
- FALL: HOW LONG HAVE I WAITED FOR YOU?
- WINTER: THE BEGINNING
- SPRING: LENT THROUGH RESURRECTION
- SUMMER: THE LONG DAYS
In-house for friends of Carmel of the Holy Trinity, Kaneohe, Hawaii, as a Postulant and Novice nun; 2014-2019.
Full-Length Collection
HUES OF DARKNESS, HUES OF LIGHT, eLectio Press, Jesse Greever, Ed. 2013.
Three Chapbooks
A DIFFERENT CURRENT, Finishing Line Press, 2011.
ON NEITHER SIDE, Finishing Line Press, 2009.
WHEN ALL ELSE FALTERS, Finishing Line Press, 2003.
(all three now out of print)
Two Other Chapbooks (independently published):
- LIGHT TO SEE BY, with Alshaa T. Rayne and Heather Grant, Honolulu, 1999.
- COOKED, WASHED, SWEPT, DUSTED with Alshaa T. Rayne others, Honolulu, 1998.
Anthologies:
- The 2011 Rhysling Anthology, Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, David Lunde, Editor, June 21, 2011.
- Sunset Inn: Tales of the North Shore, Aloha Romance Writers, branch of Romance Writers of America, Honolulu, HI, December 2012.
- Aesthetica Creative Writing Contest Anthology, Winter 2021.
- Aesthetica Creative Writing Contest Anthology, Winter 2022.
- I Ache in the Places I Used to Play, Fin Hall, Ed. Independently Published in Scotland. September 1, 2022. Poems about aging.
- Unite the States of America, Fin Hall, Ed. Independently Published in Scotland. One Poem from each USA state.
Several Literary Journals
Recent:
Cholla Needles 96: December 2024: “Everyday,” “Closing the Chicken Run,” “From the Diary of a Lunatic,” “A Mother,” and “Such Music.” Word on the Street: April, 2023, “Windy Days,” “Ergo Sum.” Otherwise Engaged: “Nocturne with Afterthought,” “Andhadhi for Lovers,” “Where They Really Are.” Dec. 2022. Decolonial Passage: “Homeless.” Special Issue on Food, Power and Powerlessness, January 2023. Thimble: “Storm Windows.” Winter 2022-23 Issue. Agape Review: Poems and Book Reviews, 2021-2022. Word on the Street: “God”; “Salvation,” Summer Issue 2022. Poetry Super Highway: “Jonah,” for March 14-20, 2022 & “Unspoken,” for Yom HaShoah Issue 2022. Poetica Review: “How to Write a Peace Poem,” Spring 2022, Issue 13. Trouvaille: “The Good Dark,” Oct. 27, 2021. Poetry Quarterly: “Moon Wobble,” Fall 2021; Closed Eye Open: “Consciousness,” Issue V, Oct. 2021. Poetry Super Highway: “Hiroshima,” for Aug. 23-29, 2021 & “Something Always about to Happen,” Yom HaShoah Issue, 2021. Pensive Journal: “Night before Ash Wednesday, 2020,” Winter 2021.
Earlier:
Transcendent Visions, 2010; Poiesis, “Images in the Dark,” 2010; Snail Mail Review; Eclipse; Nightblade, “The Woman in the World,” Feb. 2012. “Between the Silence,” Poiesis #3, 2009. “Grandfather’s Handkerchief,” Common Ground Review, Vo. 12, issue 2, 2010. “Cindy’s Bones,” Bloodroot Literary Magazine, 2010. “Luck,” Poetry Super Highway, August 2011. “Translation of a Nonsense Rhyme,” “Lovers in a Storm,” and “Time to Go Home,” Eunoia, December 2011. “Having Your Cake?” Yes, Poetry, December 2011. “Heroes,” Snail Mail Review, December 2011. “The Woman in the World,” Niteblade, March 2012. “What the Old Griot Told the Young Politician,” Conversations Across Borders, Summer 2012. Common Ground, Dec. 2010.
Others:
Snail Mail Review; Eclipse;Transcendent Visions; Barbaric Yawp, Byline, Dream International Quarterly; Lucid Moon; In Other Words; Hawai‘i Pacific Review (“Best of” edition, 1997); HarpStrings; Hawai‘i Pacific Review; Chaminade Literary Review; La’ila’i; Hawai‘i Review #37 and #38; Journal of New Jersey Poets; Hawaii Review Spring 1992; Nimrod; DC Anthology (M.L. King Library Bicentennial edition), Nethula, Essex Hemphill, Kathy Elaine Anderson, Eds. Calvert, UMD. Black Box #8, (Washington, DC ); The Spider’s Web, Jonathan Edwards College Yale U.
Honors
University of Hawaii Myrle Clark Poetry Competition, Third Prize; Academy of American Poets UH Competition, Honorable Mention; First runner up in Redgreene Press (Pittsburgh, PA) Poetry Chapbook Contest; Runner up in Dead Metaphor Press Chapbook Contest. Fifth Honorable Mention in Finishing Line Press’s (Ohio) New Women’s Voices Poetry Contest; Nomination for the Science Fiction Poetry Association Best (published) Short Poem. Hawaii Literary Arts Council Loretta Petrie Award, for outstanding service to the Hawaii literary community (2018). Shortlisted for Aesthetica Creative Writing Contest, 2021, 2022. Tied tenth place in Poetry Super Highway Contest, 2022. Nominated for Pushcart Prize by Ed. Susan Furst, Word on the Street, December 2022; by Ed. Audrey Shipp, Decolonial Passage, December 2023. Poem in annual Yom HaShoah issue in online journal Poetry Super Highway, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025.
Service
Judge of HPU Student Poetry Contest, 2021. Organizer and Coordinator of Ko’olau Writing Workshops at HPU’s Windward Campus, 15 years. Judge of HPU High School Writing Contest; Judge of HPU James Vaughn Poetry Award; Judge of Starbuck’s Peace Poems Contest. Served as a judge for Hawaii Education Association Writing Contests, 19 years; Organizer and Coordinator of HPU English Department-sponsored poetry and creative writing readings; Board member, Hawaii Literary Arts Council, (HLAC) in which I served on the Program Committee and as Coordinator of a new reading series at McCully Library; Member HLAC; Coordinated Graduate Student Reading Series in the English Department at UH Manoa.
Readings
Poetry Super Highway Zoom Readings, early 2020s (Rick Lupert); Prolific Press Zoom Readings, Early 2020s (Glenn Lyvers); HPU English Department Faculty Reading, (regularly in Spring or Fall Semester). Open Mic Night, Campus Activities Board and Student Government Association.”Pua and Poetry” art and poetry exhibit, First Unitarian Church. (Poem also exhibited with artwork painted by Heather Dudock). HPU Faculty Scholarship Day, When All Else Falters; Poetry Reading at One Kalakaua, Honolulu, HI (with others). UH Graduate Reading Series. UH Graduate Student Reading Series; UH Women’s Center Reading Series; UH Bilingual Writers’ Group, Honolulu; Bookcellar, Honolulu; Saville Bookshop, Washington DC; Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC; Washington Project for the Arts; Potomac Riverside Bicentennial, DC; Maya Art Gallery, DC; Ascension Poetry Series, Howard U; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, as first reader before featured poet Lucille Clifton.
