I’m a writer and editor based, since 2002, out of the town of Livingston, Montana.
I grew up on the north shore of Chicago, and went to Beloit College. After college I spent two years in New York City working as an editorial assistant at a small book packager. Although I discovered that New York was not the place for me, I gained valuable experience working on cookbooks including the first three volumes of the The Best of Gourmet as well as children’s books like A Day in the Life of a Horse Trainer.
After leaving New York, I spent a winter in Taiwan where I taught English, and lived with my college roommate and her husband, Emil Chau. Then after a season guiding rafts at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, I moved to Telluride and spent three years skiing and working as an editorial jill-of-all-trades for Western Eye Press.
The Creative Writing Program at the University of California at Davis was my next home. At Davis I began working on Place Last Seen, and had the chance to work with Gary Snyder, Elizabeth Tallent, and Tom Jenks. I also helped organize the Art of the Wild Summer Writers Workshop. After earning my MA from UC Davis, I headed back to the Rockies where I did my PhD in the Creative Writing program at the University of Utah. My academic credentials, including classes taught, are available by clicking the Academic link above.
While I loved teaching, after earning my Ph.D. I decided it was time to find a job and pay off my student loan debt so I headed back out to the Bay Area where I was hired by Cisco Systems. I spent nearly a decade at Cisco where I worked as a technical editor, technical writer, and localization coordinator. In 2002, I became a full-time telecommuter and moved to Livingston. I remained at Cisco until the summer of 2009 when I was laid off in a restructuring, and in 2010 I returned part-time as the documentation coordinator for the CCG Localization Group. My technical resume is available by clicking the High Tech link above.
In 2000 Picador USA published my novel Place Last Seen. It was reviewed in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and several other places, and was optioned by DreamWorks. I am currently working on a mystery novel, and you can read reviews of Place Last Seen and find links to my recent fiction publications by clicking on the Fiction link above.
I have been blogging since 2002 at LivingSmall, where I cover farm politics, sustainable living, cooking, gardening, raising backyard chickens and the many advantages of extricating one’s life from the clutches of consumerism. I also write freelance articles about books, politics and cultural issues for a number of on- and offline publications. Links to my freelance work are available by clicking the Freelance link above.
You can contact me directly at cmf406 at gmail dot com
Charlotte McGuinn Freeman » Blog
- Adrienne Rich April 7, 2012
- On “Unlikeable” Characters February 23, 2012
- The Descendants: Bourgeois Self-Congratulation January 30, 2012
- Resolved: The Year of Writing Letters January 9, 2012
- Franzen, Suicide and the Real April 21, 2011
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