Having received my MFA from NC State University, WHERE YOU ARE FROM is my first book. Okay, I was actually born at Frye in Hickory, for anyone who wants to be pedantic, but I lived my entire childhood in northern Caldwell County, an area my family first found their way to in 1789. Since that time growing up between Kings Creek and West Lenoir, I have lived many lives. I've been a short order cook, a paralegal for the incarcerated, a university instructor. a ditch-dwelling lost cause, and more!