Well, it’s official. My novel, AMNESIA OF JUNE BUGS, is in the 7.13 Books 2022 catalog, an exciting & important rite of passage for every author publishing their work.
Read MoreTwo Short Stories Published in M.E.L.U.S.
Two of my short stories, “Secret Codes & Oppressive Histories” and “10 Zen Koans” were published recently in the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States journal.
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I Actually Won Something!
In Disbelief but Stoked AF
So, I won the 2020 Noemi Press Book Prize in Prose and short story collection, COUNTERFACTUAL LOVE STORIES & OTHER EXPERIMENTS will be published in 2021!
Read MoreMy First TPE (Twitter Personal Essay)
I’ve been toying with this idea of a while now, then wrote a quick rough draft, saved it because it didn’t feel right posting in the middle of protests & looting, then ultimately decided that I wanted to give myself and others a respite from the non-stop footage of burning buildings, police thuggery, and sweeping protests. And it’s with that perspective in mind that I’ve published the first—of what I hope will be many—Twitter Personal Essays called “Cloud in Trousers.”
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Talking with My Friend & Colleague, Jolie Sheffer, about Mixed-Race/Hapa Identity in Writing, Marginalized Voices, Hypertext, & the Question of Likeability for the BG Ideas Podcast
BG Ideas Podcast
My very first podcast, where I chat with my friend & colleague, Jolie Sheffer, about the role of mixed-race identity in fiction, the question of likeability in literature, and my two texts, AMNESIA OF JUNE BUGS & DUKKHA, MY LOVE for the BG Ideas Podcast at the Institute for Cultural Studies at Bowling Green
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Short Story Published in JUKED
My short story, “The Geography of Desire,” was published recently in issue #17 of Juked.
Read MoreDream Pop Origami to be Published in 2022 by Unsolicited Press
I just got a dream fucking email by Unsolicited Press that they want to publish my experimental memoir, Dream Pop Origami. I’m in shock.
Read MoreAmnesia of June Bugs to be Published in 2022 by 7.13 Books
I’ve been holding on to this secret for a little while now after signing and returning the publisher’s contract because I wanted to wait until the moment felt right to me, but the day has finally come! I sold my very first novel, Amnesia of June Bugs to 7.13 Books
Read MoreCraft Essay on the Cult of Likeability Published in TriQuarterly
My craft essay, “The Cult of Likeability,” is now up at TriQuarterly
Read More2nd Piece Accepted in 2019
This morning I learned that my craft essay, “The Cult of Likeability (or Why You Should Kill Your Literary Friendships)” was accepted for publication in TriQuarterly.
Read More1st Piece Accepted in 2019
So today I got the awesome news that my short story “Geography of Desire” was accepted by Juked.
Read MoreProtect Your Darlings, Don't Kill Them
I’m gonna be straight, having a tenure track job as a writer/academic is different than I’d imagined it being. It’s impossible to imagine how busy you’ll be, but as a baby-faced academic, I have so many meetings to go to now: department meetings, BFA curricular revision meetings, MFA program meetings, first-year faculty fellowship meetings . . .
Read MoreOn Track At Last
Here we are now, in a strange & beautiful galaxy for the first time. After negotiating my job offer for a long & grueling week (where I constantly doubted myself & worried about tenure track horror stories of rescinded offers by small religious liberal arts colleges) & then waiting a long & torturous month for my contract to finally arrive via express mail, I can now finally say that I’ve accepted an offer to be the new assistant professor of English & creative writing at Bowling Green State University, starting in August.
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Part of my experimental memoir, DREAM POP ORIGAMI
Creative Nonfiction Published in Longreads
Today my personal essay “Our Words Will Save Us & Set Us Free,” which is part of my experimental memoir, DREAM POP ORIGAMI, was published in Longreads. This essay is also about the time I was a French interpreter for a Mauritanian refugee during his asylum interview at the I.N.S., the way I discovered the flaws, the limitations, the circularity, and the ultimate redemption of language, the way it arms us with imperfect weapons to capture the awe-inspiring sublimity & collapse of this world. This essay is also about the politics of storytelling, exploring the question of who gets to tells their stories, how do they get to tell them, in what language, and to whom. Along the way, I meditate on the metaphoricity of language itself, the cultural exchange that takes place in international development work in West Africa, the identification of language, and the impossibility and the necessity of using language to reify our struggle and to bolster our resistance.
2nd Piece Accepted in 2018
Today, I got the best kind of email from an editor at Longreads and learned that I’d sold an essay of mine from my experimental memoir, DREAM POP ORIGAMI. This is a major victory for me . . .
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A Dream Come True For Me
Creative Nonfiction Published in the New York Times
My flash nonfiction piece, “Not Done with the World” appeared today in the New York Times. After a series of disappointments, setbacks, and heartbreaks for me these past two years in my writing career, this publication means so much to me.
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Where Our Story Becomes Your Story
1st Piece Accepted in 2018
So, I just finished talking to one of the projects assistants on the phone and I’m happy, shocked, and (completely fucking) stoked to announce that my flash nonfiction piece “Lennon Wall” will be published in the New York Times in a few weeks in the Modern Love column for their Tiny Love Stories project.
Read MoreI'm Considering Moving to
It’s just a flirtation at this point, but LB and I have talked seriously several times now about moving to . . .
Read MoreProtecting this Delicate Thing Called Hope
So much of writing for me is sitting my ass down and writing, even when I don't want to. I have really good discipline. I can write for fifteen hours straight sometimes, and then revise and edit for days and weeks afterwards. The hardest part of writing I can do and have done since my first workshop back in 2002. The other crucial part of writing for me involves psychological and emotional maintenance (aka self-care), which is just as important. Normally, self-care for me means not only exercising, meditating, getting enough sleep, eating well, and going on dates with LB every week, but also ignoring my own negative thinking and putting myself out there again and again (even when it feels POINTLESS) and not getting discouraged (even when NOTHING is happening), which has been particularly difficult this summer.
Read MoreCultural Criticism on Social Media
I tweeted today about the role that social media plays in our own ontological dysmorphia
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