Runner up in Boulevard Magazine's Poetry Contest

Seems like just yesterday I was in high school, sitting on the floor of Barnes & Noble, reading Boulevard Magazine for the first time and dreaming of seeing my name in its pages one day. Now Boulevard has selected me as runner up to their 2022 Poetry Contest. My poems will be in the next issue. Thank you Boulevard for this privilege and for sowing the seeds in my fifteen-year old heart!

"It Was Our First Great Sorrow" and "The Best Things in Life" in Shenandoah Journal

In the first week of the pandemic, when we didn't know this would last for more than a year, when we created a bunker life in a one-bedroom apartment, these two poems poured out of me. In "It Was Our First Great Sorrow," I imagined what hell would be like if it were made of flowers, when something beautiful turns into the tragic. Then in a burst of uncharacteristic positivity, I thought about how phrases like "the best things in life" are so familiar yet unknown and undefinable. Those moments that make you feel on a visceral level that life is precious are the ones that surprise, the ones that defy rational explanations. Now, more than a year after that bunker life, Shenandoah Journal has put these poems out in the world, and the world has changed so much, yet in some ways, not at all.

Read the rest of "It Was Our First Great Sorrow" and "The Best Things in Life."

And check out the full issue of writers I'm lucky to be sharing space with, including Anna Maria Hong and a new translation of Adonis!

Writing Workshop at IWWG NYC Conference April 15th

What can Poetry and Fiction learn from each other? Join me at the International Women's Writing Guild Conference at Poets House this Sunday, April 15th, and find out!

Poetry and fiction are perceived as separate and opposing forms, governed by different values and objectives: fiction, as leading with narrative and characterization; poetry, as a more effective vehicle for abstraction and the aesthetics of language. In this workshop, we will examine how the structures and devices of one form can generate stronger work in the other and provide a framework for editing. We will look at how the characterization and logistics of fiction can sharpen the purpose of your poems, and how poetry can calibrate the voice and language of your fiction, and act as a catalyst for experimentation.

Register at: https://www.iwwg.org/spring-big-apple/

Poem "Market Value" in Writers Resist

On a fall day in 2015, the Chinese stock market dropped, which triggered a fall in all the other markets. I started thinking about the over financialization of our global economy. I started thinking about vegetable markets. I started thinking about what I knew then and how little I know now. Then this poem came.

Read "Market Value" on Writers Resist.

Story "The Sudden" in Wigleaf's 2017 Longlist

Last night I had the writerly blues. After a whole day of being at a standstill with my novel, feeling like I didn’t know anything about anything, and couldn’t write a single sentence worth a damn - I ended up binge watching Forensic Files on Netflix because there’s nothing like disturbing true crime stories to make you feel even worse. Then this morning, woke up to surprising better-than-bacon news: my Icelandic short story “The Sudden” made it on this year’s Wigleaf Longlist!

When it was first published with apt Magazine, it was already a joy to be alongside such beautiful and brilliant work, plus Carissa and Randolph are two of the loveliest, most compassionate and dedicated writers/editors/justice-fighters you’ll ever meet. I’m lucky that my bout of creative pessimism was disproved so quickly (thank you Wigleaf!) but it’s a nice reminder to work through the darkness,  to withhold judgment while holding yourself to a high standard. And make your Netflix choices wisely.

Congratulations to all the Wigleaf Top 50 winners!

Story "The Lady Clock" in decomP Magazine

My story “The Lady Clock” is out with decomP Magazine! I wrote this after I went to pick up my orchid from a friend who kindly took care of it during the holidays, and discovered the difficulties of walking down the street with a potted plant. Now that orchid has a home with another dear friend and Granita the cat. Super excited because I’ve been a big fan of decomP for years, they’ve won Best of the Net and other awards and are just perpetually awesome. And how cool is this "time lapse" cover art for the February issue?

Read the story at decomP

Poem "Second Child" in Roanoke Review

Starting the year off right thanks to Roanoke Review who just featured my poem “Second Child” about China’s change from one-child to two-child policy. Check out the journal - they regularly feature stunning work (including new poems by Pulitzer-prize winning and founder Henry Taylor) plus they treat their writers with lots of kindness and support.

Read the poem and my commentary on the private impact of the policy here.

My Icelandic short story "The Sudden" in apt Magazine

My short story set in Reykjavik has just come out with apt Magazine! I wrote this after visiting Harpa Concert Hall a year ago and was struck by the beehive architecture. Read here.

Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik

Actually, I dare anyone to go to dark magical light-filled Iceland and NOT feel compelled to write a story.

Poem "Postcard" in Word Riot

Thank you thank you Word Riot​ for including my poem "Postcard" in the latest issue. So excited to be part of this seriously good always renegade journal, I could flip a table right now.

Read at:     WORD RIOT April 2015 Issue

"The Water Map" featured in Lonely Whale Anthology

Some great reading and company for all the lonely whales out there thanks to Chatsworth Press. Check out The Lonely Whale Memoir here!

So happy that my short story "The Water Map" could be a part of such a gorgeous gorgeous book.