She grew up in Grand Point, Louisiana, near New Orleans, surrounded by a story telling tradition in French and English and the music of the area: Cajun, blues, and jazz.

In turn, her blues poetry has inspired artists, including Italian painter Giampiero Actis.

She has won seven first place prizes, including the Hackney Literary Award for Poetry.

Widely published, she has work in anthologies, such as Universal Oneness: An Anthology of Magnum Opus Poems from Around the World, and journals, such as Metamorphoses, Plat Valley Review, and Verse, plus French language publications such as Ancrages, Éloizes, and Feux chalins.

She has received four Pushcart Prize nominations and has done over 360 readings across Michigan, the United States, Canada, France, and elsewhere abroad.