I grew up in Connecticut, graduated from Wesleyan University in 2013, worked in NYC for about a year, traveled the West coast, and am currently an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction writing at University of North Carolina Wilmington. I'm spending the summer in Minneapolis to intern at Graywolf Press.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I took a four month trip out West before enrolling in graduate school. I started in Colorado, traveled through Utah, California, Oregon, and Washington. I stayed on my friends couches and camped the entire time. Each time I stayed with a friend (from my hometown or college), I got to experience their city/location their way. This humanizes the place for me--a new perspective I appreciate as a lot of my creative nonfiction writing is place-driven.

My network of friends is limited so I want to couch surf to expand the places I can go and experience. On a practical note, I have an unpaid internship in Minneapolis so I'm trying to exist cheaply. On my trip out West, I reduced costs by helping friends with chores--anything from cleaning to yard work.

Interests

I love writing and try to sit down every day to work on a host of personal projects. I read quite a bit. When I'm not a shut in I'm pretty active. I live on the coast in North Carolina so when the weather and conditions allow I surf every weekend. I bike/cycle (I bikecamped down the Oregon coast last summer). I'm big on hiking. I was able to hike Half Dome in Yosemite this past summer, and visit Mt. Zion, Death Valley, Mt. Rainier. When I don't live in North Carolina, I'm skiing. I raced on my college's ski team--extremely casually and slowly, but I love the lifestyle. And sometimes I still swim when I have access to a pool. I grew up swimming and raced on my college swim team (before I quit to ski!).

• writing
• coach
• reading
• billiards
• cycling
• hiking
• skiing
• swimming
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I listen to a lot of jam bands (String cheese, widespread, phish, moe--all of which I've seen multiple times). From there I listen to bluegrass (bela fleck, david grisman, railroad earth, ymsb), jazz (the classics like Brubeck, Keith Jarret, and new guys like Vijay Iyer). I love love love the talking heads. I've gotten more into "indie" music, whatever that means--so bands like Wild Nothing, Real Estate, Tame Impala. And when I write I listen to a ton of post rock and ambient electronic.

Movies: What about bob? Groundhog day. Forest Gump. The other guys. and a long list of documentaries--especially the overnighters.

Books: I read a lot of John McPhee, Annie Dillard, Eula Biss, Bill Roorbach, Bernard Cooper, Tobias Wolff, and the Best American Essay collections.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I biked down the Oregon coast last summer (starting in Portland). Well, I made it 3/4 of the way but my bike broke, luckily 6 miles from my Aunt's house. And was then driven to Eugene to stay with more family!

Teach, Learn, Share

If you're interested in writing, I'm happy to share my writing and reading with you; I'm always happy to read and critique too if you're interested in writing. I've worked as a writing tutor in the past so I can even review academic papers for developmental and line edits.

I can also give swim lessons, as I was a competitive swimmer for twelve years. I worked as a swim coach for a number of years. I've also enjoyed showing my friends weight-training exercises in the past.

What I Can Share with Hosts

As stated above, I can share my writing. If you cycle, surf, swim, ski, I'm happy to go with you and share pointers. Or maybe you teach me--I don't know, I'm not an expert at all of those things!

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Italy, Peru, Portugal

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy