 I was in nature and in literature--a perfect combination for a writer".She also said, "I'm a hillbilly, a woman, and a poet and I realized early on that nobody was going to listen to anything I had to say, so I might as well just say whatever I wanted to".As a teacher, she taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College (Professor Emeritus - from 1971 until she went to complete her Master's and then she came back in 1991 as a professor of English and director of creative writing), Buckhannon-Upshur High School (she taught now well-known novelist Jayne Anne Phillips), Western Washington University, UC Santa Cruz, Hamilton College, Potomac State College, University of Utah, and Huttonsville Correctional Center.