Home Bio

For me, writing began as letters home -- to Long Island, New York, from France, Greece, Switzerland - anywhere that had a post office. Study and work abroad in England and Ireland, and subsequent European "shoestring" travel produced a blizzard of postcards and aerogrammes. After university, I moved to Seoul, Korea to teach English and present a weekly educational television program. Asian culture shock yielded more questions and longer letters home, which evolved into a book, Through Western Eyes: Korea (Whittier Press, NY), and upon my New York return, I guest-lectured on Korean culture at university sociology classes.

It was in Beijing, China where writing suddenly covered all my bases – years of doing theatre and music gave me an ideal background to become the Performance/Classical Editor of Time Out Beijing magazine, where I cover Beijing’s theatre, dance, and classical music scene. A university obsession with volunteerism left me well-placed to write Time Out’s “Get Involved” volunteer column, which keeps me informed about social and environmental issues facing China. This helped with my next textbook, Global Cities Series Beijing, which focuses on sustainable development, citizenship and globalization.

My work has appeared in the anthology Traveler’s Tales China, as well as such publications as South China Morning Post, Gramophone UK, Macau Tatler, Transitions Abroad and Long Island Woman, and I am a 2005 Press Club of Long Island award winner. I still teach English part time, have co-written and presented weekly educational television programs as well as a radio program on China Radio International (CRI). I also direct plays for Beijing Playhouse and volunteer at the Beijing Zoo. And I travel whenever time and money permit – to any place that has something to write about.

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