I’m a journalist and musician born and raised in Portland, Oregon. My curiosity about all living things guides my creative endeavors and inspires me to understand how landscapes—and those who live in them—change over time.

I’ve worked at several local newspapers in Oregon, where I wrote about everything from cops to hydropower. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I started researching and writing my first book, “Where We Call Home,” a natural and cultural history essay collection about Pacific Northwest plants and animals, which won a 2024 Oregon Book Award.

My writing is rooted in close observation of the world around me. I try to deepen my understanding of home and the Pacific Northwest region, more broadly. I strive for narratives that show how communities — both human and non-human — persist after decades of colonialism, habitat degradation, exploitation and broken treaties with tribal nations.

In addition to journalism, I’m a musician and music instructor. I teach at a nonprofit music school in North Portland that makes music lessons affordable to kids and adults. I’ve toured nationally and internationally with different local artists, and I write, record and perform my own music, as Josephine Antoinette.

I earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Oregon in journalism and political science and received the school’s highest award for excellence in journalism.

For more than 15 years, I’ve practiced yoga and mindfulness meditation, both of which inform my creative work.

When I’m not writing or playing music, I’m most likely looking at birds, trees, rocks and clouds and wondering. I live in Portland with my love and our fluffy feline companion, Gladys.