She is the daughter of tennis champion Pauline Betz and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland.

She briefly attended Georgetown University before moving to San Francisco and receiving a B.A. and M.F.A. from San Francisco State University. She taught at Goddard College.

With Dorianne Laux, she is the co-author of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (1997). A new craft book, Ordinary Genius, was released by W.W. Norton in 2009.

She has a daughter, Aya Cash.

She currently lives in Oakland, California.

Poetry

• "What Do Women Want", poets.org
• "Eating Together", Poetry, June 2003
• "Scary Movies", Poetry, March 2000
• "The First Line is the Deepest", Poetry, January 2009
• "Weaponry", Poetry, February 2009
• "Lucifer at the Starlite", Three Penny Review, Summer 2007

Fiction

Non-Fiction

Anthologies