(Vanessa) Sarada Holt is a freelance writer and editor who has worked in community journalism since 1996. The 1991 valedictorian at Bordentown Regional High School, she graduated cum laude from Drew University in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Philosophy.

She worked for 14 years in various capacities for the Princeton Packet newspaper group, most recently as editor of the Register-News and Lawrence Ledger.

A nature enthusiast, she enjoys exploring all of the parks in Central Jersey and eastern PA and anywhere else she goes in the country, and is very much on the sustainable agriculture/environmental bandwagon.

Her main pursuit outside of writing and editing is art, and she has maintained online shops selling original and reproductions of her work on eBay, Etsy and ArtFire. Her shop at http://sarada.etsy.com is currently her main outlet for her works. She also sings in a PA-based folk band with close to a dozen releases under various project names.

When not writing, painting or singing, she is an avid reader of 18th and 19th century gothic and ghost literature, an amateur seamstress and a near-obsessive knitter/crocheter.