I was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in an Italian-American family. After high school, I headed to Philadelphia, where I got my B.A. in English, and my M.A. in Writing and English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. My thesis adviser was the playwright Romulus Linney. While there, I also minored in Photography & Film, and spent half of my junior year at the Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy, studying art, photography, and Italian filmmaking.

Since then I've written novels and nonfiction books, lived in Italy for five years, published articles in national magazines and websites, and worked at lifestyles magazines. I was the editor-in-chief of The Atlantan; the Home & Garden Editor of Atlanta Magazine; and a Senior Editor and Contributing Writer at Departures Magazine. While in New York I was also a consultant on A&E TV Network documentaries. My nonfiction book Living, Studying, and Working in Italy (Henry Holt-Macmillan) has helped many people follow their dreams as I did.

For the past twenty years I've made Atlanta my home along with my two teenage daughters, two dogs, and my husband, the design director of an architecture firm.