Carol estimates that, over the course of her career, she’s read, edited, revised, commented on, coaxed, developed, and discussed more than 57,000 pages of student writing. And honestly, it’s still one of her absolute favorite things to do.
She grew up in Queens, New York, earned her BA at NYU, and then moved to Iowa to study at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. During graduate school, Carol taught creative writing to undergraduates and volunteered as a one-on-one instructor in the Patient Voice Project. Two years later, MFA in hand, she moved to Philadelphia and worked as a writer and editor in nonprofit communications; she can be very persuasive when she needs to be.
After her day job, Carol would often hop on the trolley to teach more undergraduate writing classes (fiction and professional writing this time). Eventually, she left Philly for the very middle of the Michigan mitten, where she taught college composition for a decade. This is where she earned most of those pages, and it’s also where she fell a little bit in love with the personal narrative form. She gets genuinely excited about each new essay and has a knack for working with writers, puzzling together through a draft until that “aha” moment—the most compelling structure, the exact right word—arrives.
Recently, she’s moved again, back to the East Coast, and made the happy transition from classroom teaching into essay advising, which lets her work closely with individual students to help showcase their best selves. As an award-winning, actively publishing short story and flash fiction writer, Carol has spent time on both sides of the editorial process, and this dual perspective shapes her advising approach: she’s honest yet sensitive and empathetic (and she’s a big, big fan of celebrating writing wins, in whatever form they may come).
When she’s not writing, editing, or working with students, Carol is probably reading; she got her first library card at four years old and has now amassed quite a collection. When she’s not reading, you can find her hanging out with her two delightful kids, exploring local ice cream and coffee shops, or daydreaming about someday getting a dog.
