Writing

Picture
Cross-stitch pattern from Craft mag.

​"The sound of the story comes first." -Grace Paley

I've been writing since third grade, when a short story about squirrels overtaking a slumber party won third prize in a local writing contest. My writing post-primary school has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Sauce Magazine, the Durham-Herald Sun, the Tucson Weekly, National Public Radio Intern Edition (2005), and the Teach For America Media Newsblast. I have been nominated for awards from the James Beard Foundation (2010), the North Carolina Press Association (2002), and I won the $12,000 O.O. McIntyre Fellowship from the Missouri School of Journalism in 2000. I graduated with an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona in May 2006. While I miss seeing the ocotillo in bloom and savory-tart ceviche, I love living in Saint Louis, Missouri. 

Here are a few examples of my writing:

Creative writing 
  • "Eggs in One Basket" for The Story Collider ("true, personal stories about science") via St. Louis Public Radio (March 7, 2018)
  • "The Origins of Hunger" in New South - flash creative nonfiction (Winter 2018)
  • "What Does It Mean to Heart This?" creative nonfiction in Issue 23 of Midwestern Gothic (October 2016)
  • "The Terrible Beauty of Midwestern Road Rage" lyric essay in Issue 02 of The New Territory Magazine (September 2016)
  • One of twenty writers nationwide to be accepted into Iota: the conference of short prose (August 16-19, 2016) on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, just outside of Lubec, Maine
  • "What Blue Tastes Like," micro-essay, published in "EAT: A Literature + Photography Installation" at Centre College's Norton Center for the Arts in Danville, Kentucky, mid-May 2016
  • "After the Final No," flash fiction, published in Paddle Shots: A River Pretty Anthology, Vol. 2 in April 2016
  • Contributing writer to the University of Missouri Press / Missouri School of Journalism anthology, Words Matter: Writing to Make a Difference (April 2016): personal essay, "Soul Train on Mute"
  • One of five finalists for The Southeast Review's World's Best Short-Short Story Contest 2015; judged by Robert Olen Butler: publication of "Man Lace" in Volume 34.1 (2016)
  • Top 30 Finalist for Creative Nonfiction's "Waiting" contest (out of 650 submissions), Spring 2015
  • One of five finalists for The Southeast Review's World's Best Short-Short Story Contest 2014; judged by Robert Olen Butler: publication of "Donna" in Volume 33.1 (2015)
  • Tiny Truth via Twitter, Creative Nonfiction, Fall/Winter 2011, Issue 43 (Reviewed in New Pages): "No pants on, hollers the 86-year-old landlord to his tenant from the faded blue La-Z-Boy. "Just leave the check at the door." 
  • Tiny Truth via Twitter, Creative Nonfiction, Summer 2011, Issue 42: "The tornado was selectively cruel: Maggie's yellow dahlias and peonies bloomed. Yet lingerie & bedsheets swayed in the branches."
  • Honorable Mention for Chusma House Publication's First Annual Short Story Contest (2004): "Gretel Grows Up"
  • Top 20 Finalist for New Letters' Dorothy Capon Prize for Best Essay (2004)

Academic writing ​
Book reviews 
Food writing: Personal essays & restaurant reviews
  • Sauce Magazine, March 1, 2009, The Procrastinator's Guide to Baking - personal essay nominated by then managing editor of Sauce Magazine, Katie O'Connor, for a 2010 James Beard Award in writing
  • Sauce Magazine, October 2008, Very Sharp Knives (essay)
  • Tucson Weekly, February 9, 2006, Bread Hunt! (review)

Interviews
Social media and blogging
  • 140-character microessay via Twitter, Creative Nonfiction, Fall/Winter 2011, Issue 43 (Reviewed in New Pages)
  • 140-character microessay via Twitter, Creative Nonfiction, Summer 2011, Issue 42
  • When Mom Was My Age, #39, media professor and speaker Jane Friedman's website, July 18, 2011