I love languages and books. My parents tell me that I delighted in speaking my own secret language as a baby, and my teachers often had to tell me to “shush!” during class. As a native Georgian, I thankfully found a productive way to engage my linguistic interests by studying Spanish and Comparative Literature at The University of Georgia.
I also love opposites, and try to find deeper paradoxes in them. Perhaps this craving to connect disparate things contributed to my calling to China. Along with my husband Brian, I moved to Hangzhou, China to study another language, Mandarin. A passion for paradox drives my thirst for theology, so before moving across the world, I earned a Master of Divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. I then put this degree to good use in Shanghai as the Teaching Pastor at a nondenominational church of 2000 immigrants from over 100 countries.
After five years in the Middle Kingdom, I moved back to DC. I then served as the Fellowship Program Director at Sojourners for almost three years.I now seek to connect disparate things through metaphor.
I have a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University. I also served as the final Poetry Editor for Geez Magazine. I believe poetry makes a difference in the face of uncertainty, and I’m creating space here to explore why that is.