Dolly grew up in San Francisco’s Richmond District two blocks away from the famous and much beloved Golden Gate Park. She moved out of the occlusive SF fog to Boston to study English at Northeastern University, where she focused her passion for writing personal narrative nonfiction. Dolly can always be counted on to talk up the merits of telling your own story. During her time at Northeastern she volunteered with 826 Boston during a service learning course, “Practice and Theory of Teaching Writing,” where she honed her tutoring skills and learned to think critically—not just excitedly—about the role of writing instruction in student lives, their communities, and society at large. Dolly spends her spare time reading, writing, going on long walks, and taking on more crafts projects than she can handle.