From 1982 until 2006, she was a professor of literature and writing at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and edited the literary journal, The Seneca Review.
[1] She is the author of four books of poetry and three works of nonfiction and co-edited the anthology, The Poet's Notebook, with David Weiss and Stephen Kuusisto.
[2] Her memoir, "A Family of Strangers," chronicles her search for her father's missing relatives and her struggle to uncover the past her parents have tried to forget.
During her final year, she took up with a visiting professor, Tom MacIntyre, and the two subsequently moved to Ireland one summer in the 1970s.
While at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, they met fellow writers Stephen Scully and Rosanna Warren.