I grew up in the Midwest and south in Ohio and Kentucky, and as a young teen, I longed to be anywhere else. However, after I moved to New York City in my 20s, I found myself returning to those midwestern landscapes whenever I wrote plays. It became my subject and after I moved back home, it remained so. I was drawn imaginatively to its lush rivers, its empty parking lots, its sprawling suburbs, and its perpetually yearning and alienated youth. I was and continue to be particularly fascinated by the women there, those who stay, those who leave, and those who get trapped in between. I now live in Louisville and have two young daughters of my own, one four and one four months, and at this point in my life I write for them as much as I write for myself. Having girls makes it feel more necessary than ever to continue to not only write as a woman, but to write about what’s vital and true about the female experience, particularly as it pertains to life in the middle of the country. I’m drawn to psychologically realistic female characters who can’t reconcile what the culture tells them they are supposed to be with what they know is true.