Horan has a BA in English with a concentration in Writing from Southern Oregon University, and a M.A.T from Oregon State University. As a poet, Horan’s love for writing began at a young age. She began her studies in the craft of poetry as a youth attending Southern Oregon State College writer’s conferences, attending writer’s guild meetings in San Luis Obispo, and later as a young adult studying writing with Ellen Bass in Santa Cruz. She held live poetry readings as a youth went on to produce a spoken word album entitled Rhyme, Rhythm and Revolution.
After graduating from her Master’s program, she came home to Big Sur to teach at the Gazebo Park School. Through this experience, Horan began to see her own childhood through adult eyes as a writer and educator. As Horan began to conceptualize her experience as a child, she was inspired to write Gazebo Learning Project as she recognized how unique her education experience was and wanted to share it. So, Horan set the intention to reveal the pedagogy of Esalen’s Gazebo school in the hopes it will be an inspiration for the world in developing similar programs and ways of being with children.
This book also set Horan on a path of writing non-fiction and she feels called towards offering both alternative education curriculum and cultural and historical preservation; particularly encapsulating the essence of Big Sur through its undocumented cultural legacies. Fascinated by personal narrative and people’s stories, with her work as a writer, Horan also hopes to expose the profound beauty and excruciating struggle of being alive through both the banal and the wondrous.
Horan was an intern at Caveat and White Cloud Press in Ashland, Oregon and supported local authors Peggy Horan and LaVerne McLeod with their editing and publishing processes. Embarking on her own publishing path, she founded Silver Peak Press in January of 2020.