Long before I pursued higher education, I worked as a publications editor in the financial services industry to put my husband through grad school. There I had a boss who believed I could write, so he sent me to study with a best-selling writer. That mentor encouraged me to improve by freelancing, offering my work to the scrutiny of a broad group of readers. The red pens of other editors, painful as they were, helped me to excel.
Eventually, I opened a freelance writing business with clients such as Barney and Friends (please, don’t hold that against me). And I went to seminary. All these years later, I have the privilege of serving as editor-in-chief of a full-color magazine, calling myself an author, and teaching graduate students. My course topics range from creative writing and writing for publication to women and gender issues to public speaking. I also take students to Italy every other year for the course “Medieval Spirituality and Art”; and I take students to Calvin College’s Festivals of Faith and Writing and of Worship.
I’ve written or co-written more than twenty books. The subjects I’m most passionate about relate to women, gender, and justice. This focus came out of the decade that my husband and I spent going through infertility and pregnancy loss—subjects you will also find here. Our trauma led me to take a closer look at the Bible and its blueprint for marriage, women, gender, the human body, and bioethics. The answers I found drove me to look more closely at the cultural backgrounds that influence texts that relate to these topics.
