Graduated "Magna Cum Laude" from Harvard University in 1994 where she received her B.A. in medieval studies, and earned her MFA in 1997 at the graduate writing program at the University of California at Irvine.
Wrote a historical novel titled "The Good Men". Published by Riverhead
Books in January 2002.
September 2014 - Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of California at Riverside. She has also served as visiting professor in fiction at Pomona College.
She was the model Glen Keane used to draw the character Pocahontas for Disney's animated film of the same name, but the title character was voiced by Irene Bedard.