Landing a book deal is big for anyone; landing a book deal when you have no agent or MFA, when you can't even afford to enter book contests—that's something else. For years, Dani fought her way up through the dirt and made herself into the writer she wanted to be.
"I hustled, researched, networked and took every opportunity, apprenticeship and workshop that I could," she says.
The result is an impressive range of work that looks both inward and outward—from being celibate for three years and cooking her friend's placenta for McSweeney's Internet Tendency to penning a World Watch column for the Chicago Tribune. The Pacific Sun, Los Angeles Review, KQED Arts, various literary journals, The Rumpus, Yes! Magazine, Utne, Hip Mama Magazine—Dani's words can be found all over.