Law, Literature & Voices of Protest & Reconciliation

Poetry:   Among her poetry awards: Denver Press Club, Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship; William Battrick Award in Poetry at University of Colorado; fellowship with Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute, and writer in residence at Wildacres, North Carolina.  Her poetry has been published in periodicals such as (most recently, New York Quarterly) Ms., The Denver Quarterly, SageGreen Journal, Montelibre and Colorado Women News. Until its closure in 2020, she was the News Poetry Editor for The Colorado Independent.

Fiction: Her first novel, My Sisters Made of Light (Press 53) was a finalist for the 2010 Colorado Book Award in Literary Fiction, and was a book of the month selection for the American Association of University Women. Through sales and donations, she raised $25,000 for the creation of a shelter for women and children in Punjab, Pakistan.  The sequel novel, The Shawl of Midnight, also set inside the women’s movement in South Asia, was published by Golden Antelope Press in 2022. Her most recent short fiction is “Summer of Love,” memoir excerpt, Northern Colorado Writers Anthology, Spring 2023, and "Mississippi Goddam" Valley Voices, a literary review of the HBCU, Mississippi Valley State University .the online short story, “If It’s True, It Must Also Be Beautiful,” in The Missouri Review, which the editors have nominated for Best of the Net and flash fiction, "The Home Visit" The Ravens Perch June 2022. She won the Black Sheep award for her family fiction story, “Cough Drop Joe,” by the Colorado Genealogical Society.

Non-fiction and Reviews: Her nonfiction ranges from memoir to op-eds to legal scholarship, book reviews, travel writing, and social justice essays and rants.  She recently reviewed the poetry anthology, The Four Faces of Eve, www.compulsivereader.com, “Dismantling White Supremacy:  The Importance of History and the Role of Neighbors,” www.renameforall.com, 2020, Thinking About How to Think About Renaming Stapleton, " www.renameforall.com, 2018. Several pieces have won awards, for example, “Meeting the Dalai Lama in Tibet,” Silver, Women’s Solas Travel Writing Award and the Rocky Mountain MLA Award for Best Feminist Essay. She has published in the Harvard Women's Law Journal, Empire Magazine, and others.

Anthologies: She co-edited the anthology, Beyond Portia: Women, Law & Literature in the U.S. (Northeastern UP) and her writings have appeared in numerous anthologies, such as The Quotable Woman, Tumblewords: Writers Reading the West;Disturbing the Peace:Writings by Colorado Attorneys, Chokecherries Anthology, Kaleidoscope: Lenses on Reality, The Legal Studies Forum, and Fungi Anthology, and Thinking Women:Introduction to Women's Studies, Poems from the Back Forty, Mycoepithalamia: Mushroom Wedding Poems.

Browse her writings by theme:

Women & The Law

Violence against women, feminism.

History & The West

The American West, cities & families.

Racial Justice

Racism, injustice

Dharma & South Asia

Buddhism, liminal spaces, spirituals.

Culture & Nature

Canada geese, gardens, summer.

Family & Children

Mothers, bravery & loss.