Sandra Frykholm of Sequim has joined the Sequim Gazette as a reporter.

Frykholm grew up in Alaska and earned a bachelor's degree in English at the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

She has worked as a travel agent, sales rep for a freight bill auditing company and as office manager and real estate appraiser in a family business.

In 1991, she moved to Sequim.

As a volunteer with nonprofit groups, Frykholm wrote newsletters, press releases, training materials and brochures, and edited a variety of written material. She began freelancing in 1987 and has sold articles and personal essays to newspapers and magazines, including the Sequim Gazette, since the mid-1990s.

In 2004, Frykholm won the William Stafford Award from the Washington Poets Association, and for several years she mentored young writers interested in poetry. With her mother, she co-authored two one-act plays, both of which were produced in Sequim.

A huge fan of medieval history, Frykholm attended the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Mich., for her 50th birthday. After years of researching historical events surrounding Pope Celestine V - the only legitimately elected pope ever to resign the office - she completed a novel encompassing some of those events. She is seeking publication and researching a couple of ideas for other medieval-era novels.

She has been married to her husband, Vern, for 33 years, and has three adult children who graduated from Sequim High School.