Erin has worked as a blogger, a journalist, and a general writer over the course of her 13-year career as a professional writer, and she is equally skilled in print and online media. Her writing specialties include, but are not limited to, K-12 education, music, film, theatre, books, mental health and well-being, gaming, and outdoor recreation.
Erin enjoys reading, writing, outdoor sports, art, music, and video games.
Her favorite genres of books are mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, classic literature, mythology, legends, and folk tales.
Outside, Erin enjoys hiking, kayaking, bicycling, and bird watching.
She plays the guitar and the mandolin and is learning to draw with pastels. She loves playing video games, especially Legend of Zelda.
Erin graduated with a BA in English, cum laude, from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA in 2008.
She was a member of three honor societies: Sigma Tau Delta (English); Pi Delta Phi (French); and Alpha Chi (general academic excellence among juniors and seniors).
Erin pursued a master's in English part-time while continuing to work full-time as a journalist. Her focus was international literature with an emphasis on science fiction. Her thesis topic was memory loss and trauma in the novels of Ursula K. Le Guin.
Erin was invited to present two of her research papers at academic conferences in 2016: the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) conference in Hartford, CT, and the University of Rhode Island-Kingston GradCon in Kingston, RI.
Erin spent much of her career in journalism writing about education, especially K-12 education. She has covered topics such as budget impacts, curriculum changes, mental health and well-being, and the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on schools and learning in general.
She has interviewed students, teachers, administrators, and parents on a variety of subjects.
Erin has done phone interviews with several prominent musicians, both as a journalist and as a blogger. As a journalist, she has interviewed Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend; singer-songwriter Dar Williams; and Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and composer Christian McBride. For New York Irish Arts, she has interviewed Ruth and Joyce O'Leary, of Irish fiddle duo Sephira.
Erin has written about parks and hiking trails in the northern New Jersey area, particularly those parks located in and around Essex County, New Jersey. Some of her recent articles have been guides on landmarks of interests and hiking trails in Essex County-owned parks.
For the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference newsletter in the fall of 2015, Erin published a column about hiking trails in highly populated areas such as the New York metro region. in the column, Erin stated that a hike doesn't always mean going to the most distant backcountry you can find, and that good hikes can be found in cities and suburbs.
Erin has written about community gardens in and around her town, as well as town-wide composting projects. She maintains her own garden at home and once organized a compost collection project at her former workplace.
Erin has been a contributor to the blog New York Irish Arts: a blog dedicated to Irish and Irish-American arts and culture in New York. She is currently a contributing feature writer for Zelda Universe: a blog dedicated to the Legend of Zelda games. A recent essay she wrote, exploring the psychological themes in the game Breath of the Wild, was especially popular with readers in July 2021.
Before becoming a freelance writer and editor, Erin worked as a full-time journalist and editor for 12 years at different newspapers in northern New Jersey. She has won 26 awards from the New Jersey Press Association and the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists.
She has covered subject areas such as education, public safety, mental health, arts, books, and outdoor recreation.
Erin has acted as one of the volunteer social media coordinators for the Editorial Freelancers Association's Twitter feed. In addition to tweeting at least once a day, she directed and moderated the monthly EFA Chat.
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