A direct descendant of the Bishop Hill Colonists, I write historical fiction and nonfiction about the emigration from Sweden to America.

I learned Swedish as a nanny in Sweden while studying ethnography and literature at Uppsala University.

While earning a master’s degree in Scandinavian Languages and Literature, I taught Swedish at the University of Washington.

Fascinated by how people learn language, I got a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and went on to a career educating second language teachers.

For my involvement in the Swedish-American community in Seattle, I was awarded King Carl XVI Gustaf's Bicentennial Medal in silver.

Upheaval is my first novel.