Bio & Contact

I’m a freelance writer based in Durham, NC. I write about poverty, communities, religion, and the people who interest me for a range of local and national publications. I also help nonprofit organizations advance their missions with a variety of writing tasks.

Writing hasn’t always been my main focus. I used to be a policy wonk, and in North Carolina, my home state, I was the policy director of the NC Housing Coalition. Then I moved to Washington, DC, where I earned a degree in Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program and served as the communications officer for Freedom House, the country’s oldest human rights organization. But when my husband got a job here as a labor and delivery nurse, I happily moved back to NC.

I have a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of California at Berkeley and spent several years in my twenties working on farms and traveling around the world, sometimes on a bike. I still ride a bike all over and am an avid dancer and meditator, as well as the mom of two young boys.

To get in touch, tweet @ me, send a message to manda.abrams@gmail.com or use the form below.