Holly has been a writer for all of her adult life, beginning as the “High School Beat” reporter for the daily newspaper the Baltimore News American. After graduating from Hamilton College with a Bachelor of Arts in cultural anthropology, Holly began a career in broadcast journalism at Baltimore’s NPR affiliate and produced an award-winning local news magazine adjacent to NPR’s All Things Considered. Holly worked in radio for 15 years. She was then hired by behavior health provider, The Sheppard Pratt Health System to serve as Media Relations Lead, a capacity in which she worked with national and international media to produce print and electronic stories on behavioral health topics such as Autism, Dissociative Disorders, Schizophrenia, and Depression, as well as Parenting and Education. Holly oversaw the creation of Sheppard Pratt’s first website and served as the organization’s official spokesperson. All the while, she earned a Master of Arts degree in teaching from Towson University.

In 2001, Holly formed a freelance writing business, UpStart Communications in order to focus entirely on writing while teaching high school and college English and History on the side. Her writing focus was historical research and creative non-fiction writing. She was commissioned by the Boys’ Latin School of Maryland to uncover its history (founded in 1844) and write a book, One Heartbeat: The History of The Boys’ Latin School (2005) which was reviewed by the Baltimore Sun as “a beautifully written and illustrated story of Baltimore’s oldest school, told against the backdrop of the history of Baltimore including the Civil War…” Holly was subsequently commissioned to research and write the history of a large petroleum company (Quarles Petroleum) and authored and oversaw production of Founders and Keepers: The History of a Family Oil Business. In 2016, She edited and illustrated a memoir written by her favorite storyteller, her grandfather Luther Tall: I Wouldn’t Have Changed a Thing.

Holly has authored scores of feature articles, many with an historical bent for regional and national magazines.

The Birth of Hilltop Writers

In 2017, while at a Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference in New Mexico, Holly learned about the Amherst Writers & Artists method of facilitating writing workshops. She was fascinated by this positive approach to supporting emerging writers and sought training and certification in the method. She subsequently formed Hilltop Writers and began offering workshops in a church classroom in Baltimore. Nearly 100 writers were enrolled in the

before March 2020 when Covid 19 forced a shutdown. Eventually, workshops continued using ZOOM.

Growth of the Program

In 2022, Holly relocated to Charleston, South Carolina where she spent six months researching, developing and piloting a second workshop, Writing from Life with a Focus on Memoir which will be added to the Hilltop Writers Workshop line up in the Fall 2024.

Hilltop Writers is again offering in person workshops beginning in January of 2024 in a new location, the Roland Park Community Center. Additional programming includes retreats and poetry and prose performances.

Holly earned a Master of Arts degree in organizational leadership from Towson University in 2017. She holds a Master at Teaching degree from Towson as well and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hamilton College where she studied cultural anthropology and fine art photography. In the course of these pursuits, Holly has sought to develop her own creativity and learn and develop methods of supporting others on their creative journeys.