The written word has always been a vital part of Amy’s life. Growing up with a large family, Amy learned right away that the only chance she had to get in a word was to write it down. “I had a diary and a notebook—or two, or fifty—filled with feelings and happenings of the day. I still have my 10-year-old self’s diary that I got from my big sister. In it, I write about giving my diary a name as if it’s my best friend.”
Amy’s time is filled with family, friends, travel, writing, editing, and teaching. She’s living her best life and finds that life’s moments become concrete lived experiences through her first love: writing. “I write constantly,” she says. “I have multiple short stories and novels all going at the same time. Once I feel they are ready for my readers, I send them out in the world.”
Even though writing is her priority, her zen moments come during the editing process. “I love to take a sentence and see what magic I can create with it. Adding a period here, a comma there, a synonym here, a subtle joke there, is fun.” She admits that her detailed process can also limit her and keep some stories from being sent out to her readers. “Sometimes I’m so picky about a sentence that I can get bogged down with it for hours. It’s amazing how fast a day goes by when I’m in my editing space. But that’s where the fun is. It’s art. It’s the creative act of writing.”
Amy has her BA in English Literature and Writing from Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Cedar Crest College out of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Her Master of Fine Arts was a low-residency program with a cultural studies component through Cedar Crest College’s Pan-European program. Meeting the most dynamic writers through both programs has provided Amy with a large writing community that supports each other through all parts of the writing and authorship process.