"The Drive" in the Adroit Journal & 2025 Veasna So Fiction Scholar

Thank you Adroit Journal for making me one of the 2025 Veasna So Fiction Scholars, and for publishing "The Drive!" Read here.

This story starts in DC the night of the 2016 U.S. elections and ends a decade later in Iceland.

I was inspired by the marriage of Clara Immerwahr and Fritz Haber. Haber had invented both the synthesis of ammonia which saved countless people from famine, and gas warfare in WWI. Clara was one of the first women to receive a doctorate in chemistry, but had devoted herself to supporting her husband's career, and was known as a pacifist. I tried to imagine what that relationship would look like today, with all its collisions, comforts and misunderstandings.

Finally, you can watch a reading of the Fiction Scholars on YouTube.

Unfortunately, I had connectivity issues joining from China, so I didn't quite finish what I intended to read, but luckily it's all available to read online, both the story in Adroit and "How to Catch the Sun" which first appeared in Wigleaf.

Dogs! Revenge! 1st Person Plural! Story "Geraldine Foggs" published in Identity Theory

There's revenge! Dogs! Mysterious illness! Yuppies! Small town crimes! Revenge by dogs! "Geraldine Foggs" is now out with Identity Theory. It only takes 12 minutes and no cost at all to read here.

This story about a cleaning woman with a crooked son and an unexplained blindness is told from the perspective of the town. I've always loved the first person plural. Anthony Doerr's "For A Long Time, This was Griselda's Story" and Jeffrey Eugenides' Virgin Suicides are gorgeous examples. It took me several drafts over the years to get the point-of-view and magical realism atmosphere right. A good reminder to keep editing and don't give up on your favorite stories. 

Can't thank enough editor extraordinaire Sophie Newman who helped me land the ending, and Matt Borondy for bringing me into the Identity Theory community, and who found the perfect photo to go with this piece.

Story "It Was A Watermelon Love" in The Boiler!

New story about young love, old regrets and lots of bad-good art now out with The Boiler ! What would you do if you had a chance to see a past love after decades? Would you meet them or run the other way so that you can freeze those perfect memories? Would you even recognize each other?

Inspired by sunny days in Provence and lots of tipsy gallery openings in NYC, this story took me a year to perfect... and it's less than 5 minutes to read! Don't know about you but sounds like a good deal to me.

Story "The Rooms of the Day" in Summerset Review!

 

A mountain chalet. A distant couple sharing small spaces. Mysterious backpacks and burning brussels sprouts. My new story, "The Rooms of the Day," is out now with Summerset Review!

Four years ago, I got that finger-ends buzzing inspiration at a gallery opening in Zurich where this artist's sketches of the rooms in his house covered an entire wall. Since then, I've re-written it three times, workshopped it twice. Some stories are triple-barrel scotch. Others are Beaujolais. All taste great but this one needed the ageing/editing.

Thank you to Joseph Levens, editor of Summerset Review! Read the story here.

Story in "Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction"

My story "How to Catch a Sun" is now out in a new anthology, Forward: 21st-Century Flash Fiction. This story about a woman blinded by a solar eclipse and how she lived through two wars and one revolution first appeared in my favorite flash fiction journal, Wigleaf.

Great to see this story sandwiched between the work of so many brilliant fiction writers of color. The anthology is available to order here.

Want to hear my serious just-getting-over-a-cold voice reading "How to Catch a Sun"? Of course you do! Listen on Soundcloud.

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/

Story "The Lady Clock" Nominated for Best Small Fictions 2018

Must be writers nomination season because here's another from Decomp Magazine for "The Lady Clock" - a story about a boy, a girl and a bouncing orchid in Geneva. OK now I can go home, eat a whole bag of chips AND chocolate almond bar, and dance like I've been drinking. Wait, I am drinking.

Read at: http://www.decompmagazine.com/theladyclock.htm

Story "How to Catch a Sun" in Wigleaf & Nominated for Pushcart!

My story “How to Catch a Sun” about life after an eclipse is now out with Wigleaf Journal. Bonus: it’s nominated for the Pushcart Prize! It follows one woman's life across six decades, a couple of wars and two continents - all in about 800 words.

When I first got the yes from Wigleaf, I was visiting a lighthouse in Provincetown, and started jumping up and down, then ran over to Norman Mailer’s grave to jump some more. Why was I jumping? I’ve been addicted to their perfect little bundles of fiction for years, and they’re all perfect because of Scott Garson' sharp editorial eye.

Double bonus: they’ve included a delirious postcard written on the plane on my way back from Nigeria.

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

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.

Speculating in Corsica

The first time I read Jenny Offill's book Dept. of Speculation, I raced through the fragments that built to a very moving novel. This time I brought it to my Corsica weekend to flip through and savour as bite-sized prose poetry. This picture was taken at the Iles Sanguinaire or Bloody Islands though they didn’t look as red as their name that day. Maybe I was just dazzled by all the book blue on Mediterranean blue.

Lines like these made my heart stop: "Sometimes the husband and wife run into each other in the park across the street. He is there to smoke, she to stare at the trees. He buttons the three buttons of her coat. He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, she thinks."

Swimming with The White Tiger

Finally finished The White Tiger at 1am the other night. Isn’t midnight the best time to read? The world is so quiet then, if only there wasn’t work the next day. Well, Aravind Adiga made my sluggish morning worth it. His book was dark, funny, disturbing, unexpected - sometimes all within one sentence. I especially liked how it’s structured as a letter to the Chinese Premier. Though of a very different style, it reminded me a bit of Lolita in how the reader accompanies the narrator through his growing insanity until you start questioning the reality being presented to you.

I just heard they're about to bring it to the big screen. This book is so full of chaos and momentum, I have no idea which direction they're going to go. One thing's for sure, it'll take the white tiger of screenwriters to adapt it. 

Now I have that empty feeling after a good book - what should I read next?!?