From the beginning, letters were more than they seemed. The one that began the story loomed over the others and looked like a forest, so I lost myself there first. I loved the Hebrew snaillike “fey” and dressed like it for a performance. Mesmerized by the shapes and sounds inside the books, I’d say “cats caterwauling” over and over again to hear them.

I was raised on ritual and recitation. History and archaeology books were everywhere. A photograph my mother took of Qumran Cave 4 with its tiny dark doorway hung on the wall; an image from Lascaux Cave was set above the fireplace. An old bellows barely used would take on a life of its own and become a symbol.

My work is about the hiddenness and the materiality of text. It’s about folkways and furniture, inheritance and guesswork. The poems are minimally furnished, asking questions about completeness.

I’m the author of Like an Olive (Verge Books, 2022) and Aleph (Verge Books, 2017). My poetry and essays have appeared in West Branch, Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, Flag + Void, CutBank, LVNG, and Opon, among other publications.

I’ve been a member of the Transcending Trauma Project research team since 2016, transcribing, analyzing, and coding semistructured long interviews with Holocaust survivors, their children, and grandchildren. I’ve prepared these texts for the archives at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. I’m currently working with this data to research the impact of the Holocaust on the third generation.

I received my BA in English from the University of Exeter in England and was awarded the Gamini Salgado Prize “for the undergraduate dissertation that best communicates the qualities of imagination and intellectual flair.” I hold an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Colorado State University and a Specialized Certificate in Copyediting from the University of California, San Diego. I’m a member of ACES: The Society for Editing. I edit and proofread fiction, nonfiction, and poetry manuscripts for both publishers and independent authors.

I grew up in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia in a village of sorts and now live by the Salish Sea with my husband Rico, our dear cat Fennel, the otters, the seals, the deer, and many human friends.

My name is transliterated from the Hebrew and is pronounced “teer-tzah.” My pronouns are she/her/hers.

Please reach out if you’re interested in my editorial services, and let me know how I can help. I love working with language, and I’d love to hear from you.