Author. Certified Coach. Catalytic Speaker.
Helping you nurture inner connectedness.
Strengthening community interconnectedness.
Founder and Managing Partner, BornWilder LLC
My work is built upon my story.
When I was twenty years old, I made a grave mistake. I got behind the wheel when I was too drunk to drive, crashed the car into a pole, and spent the night in jail. My friend in the passenger seat was transported to the hospital, waking from a coma four months later with a life-altering brain injury. I didn’t mean to crash the car. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. But it didn’t matter. I couldn’t change what happened.
Who I thought I was, how I thought to act in society, what I thought my dreams were–all gone.
Instead of entering adulthood with excitement and prospect, I set out to understand what living a “good” life meant. At the same time, my rightful feeling of guilt solidified into a parasitic shame.
Looking back, I see how creativity helped me build my life in the aftermath. I’m naturally curious, adaptable, imaginative, and open to new experience. The decades-long quest took me through grief, remorse, and deep self-reflection. Over time, bit by bit and not in a linear fashion, I fostered self-worth, self-forgiveness, and inner peace.
Today, I want to help others feel less alone and live their version of their best lives.
My work, then and now
My first career was in restaurant hospitality where I honed the joyous customer service I bring to my work today. Early in my career, I received crucial advice. Working as a server at a restaurant overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, a manager (and friend) pulled me aside and said, “It’s time to be more than an order taker.” Before that moment, I saw myself as someone who brought others food. I didn’t see myself as an important part of a diner’s experience. That conversation changed how I waited tables, and eventually, managed a restaurant. I learned to meet customers where they were, helped create memorable experiences and rocking good times, or made myself unseen for those who needed privacy and quiet. I loved it, and decided not to be an order taker in life too.
In addition to restaurant hospitality, I’ve engraved trophies, made legal copies, and managed an office for a flooring store. But none of that work provided me enough time to write. So, I taught myself web design, founded a business, and started my second career. Since then, I have written two poetry collections and a chapbook. Public speaking and coaching are natural extensions to the work I have done, including as a single mother of my first child and then a stay-at-home mom of twins. At the core, I’m a poet: I’m driven to exploring the depth of human experience. All of this to say, I bring creative perseverance to my work. I’m also hopelessly optimistic, a big-picture thinker, and energized by introspection.
Professional bio
As an arts and culture community leader in the For Alamance Initiative, I trained in The Harwood Institute of Public Innovation’s Catalytic Guide Program.
I became a Certified Life Coach (CLC) in the Life Purpose Institute (LPI) coach training program which is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
As a single mother and nontraditional student, I earned my BFA in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and my MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
For two years I received mentorship from architect Ligon Flynn as I studied the history of architectural space as his researcher and writer. I’m working on a nonfiction book about the experience.
Author bio
Singing Riptide (Press 53, Sept. 2025) charts Cheryl Wilder’s journey from personal, all-consuming shame; through the intergenerational forgiveness that made self-forgiveness possible; to self-realization and belonging. A companion to Anything That Happens (Press 53)—the collection that chronicles the root of Wilder’s shame and how she navigated the immediate aftermath—Singing Riptide is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Durham Arts Council, local grants administrator.
Community leadership
2024-26, North Carolina Poetry Society member at large
2022-present, For Alamance Arts & Culture co-lead and community guide
2022-24, Burlington Writers Club president
2020-present, Burlington Writers Club student contest co-chair
2020-2024, Waterwheel Review: Literature Without Labels, co-founder, webmaster, and editor
2013—2018, National History Day, Raleigh, NC, judge, historical papers
2010—2013, Floating House Writers, co-founder
