Nan is a lake-facing poet, Great Salt Lake celebrant, and vigil keeper. 

She created the practice of River Writing in order to foster voice and authentic connection. This community-held writing practice is designed for anyone willing to pick up a pen. Everyone is invited. A recent PBS documentary highlights River Writing as a method of repair for what is broken in our relationship with the natural world.

Her debut poetry collection, prayers not meant for heaven, was published by Toad Hall Editions in the summer of 2021. Nan's story lake woman leaving, a modern myth, was awarded the 2022 Alfred Lambourne prize by Friends of Great Salt Lake. In the summer of 2023, Nan was honored by Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall with a Mayor’s Artist Award. As poet-in-residence on Antelope Island, Nan led day-and-night vigils on behalf of the imperiled Great Salt Lake throughout the 2022 and 2023 Utah State legislative sessions.

During her weeks on the receding lake shore, she composed irreplaceable, a collective praise poem for great Salt Lake, containing over 400 lake-facing voices. The book was published in fall of 2024 by Moon in the Rye Press. The ode is a community cry for the full restoration of the ecosystem.

The 2024 winter vigil featured twice daily demonstrations of love for the lake at the Utah State Capitol. Advocates of all ages walked with waves in silence every morning and celebrated the lake’s species with jubilant singing and dancing each evening. Over 1200 people participated in 68 demonstrations during the session. As the 2025 session approaches, Nan and her accomplices at Making Waves Artists Collaborative are preparing to keep vigil at the Capitol again.

Nan continues to advocate for Rights of Nature, legally defensible personal rights for ecosystems, including Great Salt Lake. Her work gives voice to their inherent right to live, flourish, and evolve in natural way. The words emerge from a devotion to repairing the breach between humans and the rest of the sentient, singing earth.