As a seven-year-old, I recruited my classmates as reporters for my own newspaper, Kids' News, and told my mom I wanted to be a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. (I ended up writing most of Kids' News myself). While the written word was always present in my life in some form or another, I dabbled for several years in academics before returning to journalism.
Six years ago, I moved across the Atlantic on a Fulbright fellowship to live in Sweden. I recently ended my exile in the Swedish capital with a return to my almost-hometown of Seattle. (I spent the first 18 years of my life in a midling-sized town in Southeastern Idaho. And that was positively urban by Idaho standards). I quit my job in the middle of the economic downturn to pursue a my writing fulltime.
My revitalized writing career actually began in November 2006, with an interview with Malcolm McClaren, the notorious manager of the British punk group Sex Pistols. Needless to say, I had done my homework for that encounter, but I was the last reporter to talk to him after a full day of interviews. He didn't say anything he hadn't said in his speech earlier in the day as a headliner at the FutureDesignDays conference (except accuse the designers in attendance of being "the enemies of art"), but he didn't eat me alive either. I survived the enfant terrible, and a month later, I interviewed two of the 2006 Nobel laureates from Stanford University.
Since then, I've covered topics ranging from international education to industrial design for publications such as Budget Travel, Afar, Icon, International Educator, Varoom, Sublime, Get Lost!, Men's Journal and Business Traveler and websites such as printmag.com and dwell.com. I also moonlight as a stringer for The Local, "Sweden's News in English," an online newspaper catering to Sweden's expat community, and am an editor-at-large for Elemente design magazine in Canada.
During the odd moments I'm not furiously scribbling to meet a deadline, you might describe me as a bookworm who has caught the travel bug. My (mis)adventures have involved camel trekking in the Sahara desert and dog sledding above the Arctic Circle. (I'm also a big fan of parenthetical references). My favorite book is David Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity, a story about a haphazard journey around the world in seven days. It's something I'd like to do one of these days, although perhaps I'll make it in eight days.
I live with two Norwegian forest cats, Vessa and Gustav, who flew across the ocean with me when I moved back to Seattle. The latter, a cheeky orange creature who likes to sleep in sinks, is named after a 17th century Swedish monarch, Gustav Vasa. The Vasa was also an ill-crafted warship that sank in Stockholm habor during her maiden voyage in 1628. (See this article for more elaboration.) Thankfully, Swedish design has improved a lot since then.
EMPLOYMENT
| 2007-2008 | Writer, Editor and Translator, Battison & Partners | Stockholm |
| 2006 | Research Editor, Kaupthing Bank | Stockholm |
| 2003-2005 | Research Assistant, Södertörns Högskola | Stockholm |
| 2001 | Writer Intern, U.S. Department of State | Washington DC |
| 1999-2002 | Writing Consultant, Seattle University | Seattle, WA |
| 1998 | Staff Writer and Assistant News Editor, University Argonaut of Idaho | Moscow, ID
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EDUCATION
| 2003-2004 | Masters Program in European Politics, Stockholm University |
| 2002-2002 | International Graduate Programme, Stockholm University |
| 1998-2002 | BA in History and International Studies, Seattle University |
| 2001-2001 | Study abroad, Leiden University |
FELLOWSHIPS
| 2002-2003 | US Department of State Fulbright Fellowship for graduate studies in Sweden |
LANGUAGES
English (native), Swedish (fluent), French (intermediate)
