Maria Finn

I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri and when I finished college there, I moved to Homer, Alaska with the goal of earning lots of money so I could travel in Latin America. I earned very little money in Alaska, but fell in love with the raw beauty, the adventures, the storytelling and so went back season after season. First I worked on a small salmon seiner skippered by a woman, and then in remote fields camps where I monitored salmon swimming up rivers for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. I spent a winter in Guatemala developing a fishpond on an orphanage, one teaching English in Seville, Spain, and two hiking and climbing in Peru. I moved to New York City to attend the Creative Writing MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College. I lived in Brooklyn for over 10 years and taught in the English Departments at Hunter College/CUNY and St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights. I moved to Sausalito, California in 2008 and live on a floating houseboat with a rooftop garden that includes a tango floor. This year I have two books being published. "Hold Me Tight and Tango Me Home" (Algonquin) about recovering from heartbreak by learning to tango, and another one, "A Little Piece of Earth, How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces" (Rizzoli) about edible gardening for foodies. I write a weekly newsletter/blog, City Dirt: City Dirt: The Bay Area Weekly Garden Newsletter for Foodies, Foragers, Tree-Huggers and Beauty Lovers. (www.citydirt.net) My author website is www.mariafinn.com.