Hello, my name is Amanda. I hail from the piney part of New Jersey, in a boondocks town not far away from the "Jersey Shore" house, location wise, but on the opposite end of the earth as far as culture goes. I've gone from Lakewood to Forked River, towns that are both in the Pine Barrens and close to the beach. Such places have given me an appreciation for nature that ultimately guided my decision to go to Ithaca for college. One look at that lake and I could not NOT apply.

I'm a recent graduate of  Ithaca College with a major in writing and minoring in environmental studies. I graduated in May of 2014 with a B.A. in nonfiction writing which I hope to use somewhere in the professional world, particularly in Washington, D.C. I write essays, poetry, the occasional fiction and a lot of puns, both for fun and for class. I write mostly about nature, place, identity, family, dogs and food.

Though it's hard right now to see myself as any more than just someone behind the desk in a classroom, I suppose I'm a writer, technologist and naturalist. Maybe even a scholar. Oh, and I'm definitely a blogger, as you will discover if you click here.

When I'm not writing or reading, I'm usually working at my on-campus library at odd hours or cooking weirdly fancy (but delicious!) food at my apartment. I love dogs, drawing, cheese and cheesy things, including bad jokes and 80s movies. I like to walk places both in the woods and around town, and am known to my friends as the "Queen of Public Transportation." Some of my non-academic, non-professional "major life accomplishments" include beating Tetris (cleared 5,000 lines in one game) and making my friend laugh until she cried with a single-word pun ("Libeary").

© 2013 Amanda Del Sontro All Rights Reserved