About

I’m a proud citizen of New York City, born and raised in Brooklyn. I’ve also lived in Chicago, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Spain, but I’ve been holed up in Manhattan for some decades now and have no desire to live elsewhere.

Now that I’m an older woman, this is the time for me to reflect on why my life turned out the way it did. I have three children and six grandchildren, and I’m close to all of them. My profession, teaching literature, was the perfect fit for me, and one of the best choices in my life. Romance has always fascinated me, which is why I wrote Loveland: a Memoir of Romance and Fiction. This book was my opportunity to dig deeply into how I became a romantic, what that meant to me, and why romantic love has always had such a deep allure in my life and the lives of many other women.

Since writing LOVELAND, I’ve published some personal essays, “I Am My Longing,” in Memoir Magazine, and “Not Jane Eyre’s Story,” in the essay collection Gray Love: Stories of Dating over Sixty. My essay about Alzheimer’s and identity, “Mother/Daughter, Daughter/Mother” was published this year in Two Hawks Quarterly: https://twohawksquarterly.com/creative_nonfiction/2025/05/15. Another essay, “I Now Pronounce You… Whatever You Two Are,” will be published in a forthcoming collection, Loving Arrangements, about unconventional relationships. The latter essay is a humor piece, a fictional letter to a future boyfriend! 

I am the author of four published books, but two are more suited to the non-academic reader. Women and Romance: A Reader is a collection of writings, from historical letters to conflicting viewpoints from many voices, including traditionalists and anti-romance feminists. The Glass Slipper: Women and Love Stories explores both classic and popular romance, from classic romance novels to romantic movies and popular romances, with new perspectives on women’s attraction to romance.