As a writer and filmmaker, storytelling has always been my creative home. But that year, I stepped into a new role (teaching artist) and conceived a course called Silver Screen Filmmakers Club. I didn’t just want to teach filmmaking techniques. I wanted to create a space where older adults could claim their stories, shape them, and see themselves reflected on screen.

I’m thrilled to share that I have received a 2025 Work In Progress Micro-Support Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission! This grant will support my latest long-form fiction project: a speculative novel for adults set in the Indiana Dunes, exploring the lives of several generations of Hoosier women and their relationship to the land that holds them. At 80,000 words, my WIP (work in progress) is currently in rough draft form, and this support will allow me to refine it into a p

As 2025 comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on a year packed with storytelling, teaching, filmmaking, and a whole lot of words (both written and spoken). It’s been a year of long-awaited premieres, new adventures, and projects that continue to grow and connect with communities across Indiana and beyond.

What started as a nonfiction writing and instructional design project has turned into a hands-on experience that libraries, schools, nonprofits and students across Indiana have truly embraced.

What started as a simple goal, to create equitable, accessible access to the Grand Calumet Lagoon and River, grew into Indiana’s first universally designed kayak launch and sensory garden. Capturing this process on film was essential because this story isn’t just about a physical space, it’s about how community-led initiatives, public–private partnerships, and persistence can make meaningful, lasting change.