Environmental Scientist. Writer. Mother.

Blog and News


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Getting Back on Track

When I was a kid, my father used to take me on long bike rides to the shore of Lake Erie, in the town next to ours.  Our town and …

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Notes on a Tail Spin

Suppose you have just graduated from your MFA program, and you’re all aglow from people’s response to your work, feeling a sense of confidence — a currency with which you’ve …

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Wal-Mart Posts 21 Percent Drop In Q4 Profit

Creating the Shift

Recently, at a literary gathering, I shared the details of my reading at Arizona State University’s Sustainability Solutions Festival in Phoenix with some of my writer friends.  I described the …

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What I Learned on an Elevator with Sebastian Junger: A Writing Conference Lesson

Years ago, when I was just starting to seriously contemplate this writing thing, my husband convinced me to attend my first writer’s conference.  I was a new mother and had …

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Heartache

Heartache

I never would have gotten away with writing it.  Some editor would have sent it back, compelled by the story’s likeness to an awful, sentimental movie to take a few …

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airplane-blog

Vomit On A Plane: A Lesson in Perspective

My family and I recently traveled back to Central Oregon after an extended stay in New England.  We had just boarded the plane for the second leg of our three-plane …

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On the Virtues of Crying: A Graduation Speech

Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program Winter 2014, Freeport, Maine Thank you, Dean Tuchinsky, Justin, Annie, Robin, Stonecoast faculty and staff, friends, families, graduates and distinguished guests.  I am so …

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On the Lyric Essay

In preparation for my recent graduate student presentation on the lyric essay, I came across an array of interesting quotes and ideas about what, exactly, the lyric essay is.  From …

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SustainabilityAwards

$10,000 Sustainability Essay Prize Awarded

From creativenonfiction.org: Mary Heather Noble is the winner of the $10,000 first-place prize for Creative Nonfiction’s The Human Face of Sustainability essay contest, sponsored by Arizona State University’s Sustainability Solutions …

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SomeThingsAboutHome

Some Things About Home: A Eulogy for Les

I’m going to ask you to close your eyes and clear your minds.  Before I say what I want to say, I just want you to just take a moment …

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