I'll be leading a writing workshop on the theme of place with poets Matt McBride and Marge Saiser at the Writer's Place in Kansas City, MO on Saturday September 8th. We'll be offering three lessons for the price of one workshop! Appropriate for all poets regardless of experience level! Here's the description:

"Write Where You Live" will jump-start your poetry via three lessons exploring the theme of place. In "Mining the Landscape," Ruth Williams will help you tap into the metaphoric potential of geography. Matt McBride's  "Remembering Imaginary Places" will teach you how to use description to create compelling imaginary worlds. In "Place: From a Slightly Different Angle," Marge Saiser will guide you in the art of choosing an angle from which to approach your poem's subject matter. In addition to a discussion of craft, each lesson will feature a writing exercise designed to help you generate new work. With the remaining time, we'll invite participants to share the work they've generated.  

To Register, visit the Writer's Place website.

Split Lip Magazine featured me as part of their "From the Writing Desk Of" series. I had way too much fun writing about the random items on my desk and the way I organize my space. If you're curious, check it out!


​Split Lip Magazine gives good gifs and awesome shoutouts to great writers on their Twitter. Follow, submit, enjoy!

Until April 1st, order Flatlands directly from Black Lawrence Press for $13.95, a few bucks off the purchase price. 

"At the bottom of the hill, 
a woman waits, up above,
the white columns of Jewell
take shape."

                  -from "Uphill"


My poem 'Uphill" was commissioned by Dr. Elizabeth MacLeod Walls to celebrate her inauguration as the 15th president of William Jewell College on October 20th, 2017. The poem combines my own text with quoted material from a variety of sources from across Jewell's history, creating a poem that allows me to better fulfill my role as a voice of Jewell's community. "Uphill" celebrates the historic appointment of Jewell's first woman president by telling the story of how women first came to study on "the hill" while also seeking to leave the audience energized to meet the hills of the future.

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I attended the 2017 Sewanee Writers' Conference as  Tennesee Williams' scholar. Scholars are selected by a board of writers who make decisions based on the merit of the applicant's work.