I graduated May 2012 from Minnesota State University Moorhead with an MFA in Creative Writing. My thesis, Peace Country, is a historical fiction novel set in western Canada during World War II. Along with my fiction emphasis, I completed courses and workshops in non-fiction and poetry. Selected essays from my memoir, The Colo(u)r of Ground Ginger, were accepted at the October 2012 North Dakota University System’s Art and Humanities Summit in Valley City North Dakota. I have also served as a manuscript screener for New Rivers Press and also on the editorial board for MSUM’s literary magazine Red Weather. I also keep a weekly blog on the joys and struggles of parenting a son with autism: www.standardprocedures.wordpress.com