She was raised in various parts of South America. She graduated from Rice University, and Stanford University. She was ordained a Buddhist nun in Burma. She teaches at Southwest Texas State University. She was a panelist at the Key West Literary Seminar.
Not Where I Started From. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1997. ISBN 978-0-395-86032-8.
When Mountains Walked. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2001. ISBN 978-0-618-12701-6.
Editors
Kate Wheeler, ed. (2004). Nixon under the bodhi tree and other works of Buddhist fiction. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 978-0-86171-354-7.
Anthologies
"Contemporary Fiction: Granta's Best of the Young American Novelists " 1996
C. Michael Curtis, ed. (2003). Faith: stories. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-618-37824-1.
William Miller Abrahams, ed. (1982). Prize Stories 1982: The O. Henry Awards. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-17563-0.
Robert Stone, Katrina Kenison, eds. (1992). The best American short stories. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-59304-2.CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
Frances Mayes, Jason Wilson, eds. (2002). The Best American Travel Writing 2002. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-618-11880-9.CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
Lucy McCauley, ed. (2008). "Cape with a View". The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008: True Stories from Around the World. Travelers' Tales. ISBN 978-1-932361-55-1.
