Ever since sixth grade, I’ve wanted to be a writer. Today, the colorful “Career Line”  I crafted back then hangs on the wall of my office. While some of my preteen goals were not met (I did not win a special writing award in tenth grade for a top story, nor did I become a staff writer at the LA Times), my writing career has taken wonderful twists and turns, as has my life.

After attending UC Santa Cruz (not Cal State Northridge, as my sixth-grade self envisioned), I spent a year traveling abroad with a dear friend. It was my first trip to Israel, and my first exposure to Torah Judaism. I spent most of that year studying with wonderful female teachers and rabbis, returning to Los Angeles as a Torah-observant Jew.

I moved to the Hancock Park community and worked as an assistant editor for a Torah scholar. While I loved the publishing world, I knew I wanted to write. A few years later, I had earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Marina Del Rey.

While working as an online editor, I started freelancing for magazines and newspapers; my work has appeared in such publications as Mishpacha, Binah Magazine, Inyan, Nashim.com and Aish.com. For many years, I have been writing features and book reviews for The Jewish Home LA. I have also published many essays and short stories under a pseudonym.

My short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in several anthologies, including Sarah Shapiro’s “Our Lives” series, my poem “Arrival,” will be featured in her newest anthology, “The Stories of Our Lives.”