Highly Commended for the 2021 Bridport Prize

It’s been quite a week over here for yours, truly. I’m in the middle of a super-productive residency at VCCA, my story “Clarinet Lessons” won the 2021 Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing, I turned thirty-nine, and another one of my stories, “The Hall of Human Origins,” was Highly Commended for the 2021 Bridport Prize. […]

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Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing

I am proud to announce that my story, Clarinet Lessons, was selected by judge Charlotte Watson Sherman as the winner of the 2021 Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing. The story is now on CALYX’s website and will be coming out in the summer/fall 2022 print edition. I’ve also done an audio recording to accompany […]

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Shortlisted for the 2019 Faulkner-Wisdom short story competition

Today I found out, rather belatedly, that my short story “Fourteen Meals” was shortlisted for the 2019 Faulkner-Wisdom short story competition. I had received an email from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society back in early September announcing the winners, but I must have clicked on the wrong link/failed to read the fine print, because I […]

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James Knudsen Prize for Fiction Finalist

Hello, popping in from my typical hibernation to share a little bit of encouraging writing news. I was recently named one of two finalists in the James Knudsen Prize for Fiction (Bayou Magazine). Little near-victories like this keep me going as I continue to submit my short fiction and hope, fervently, to be published again. […]

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One Story Summer Writers Conference

I just got back from the One Story summer conference in Brooklyn and, despite being sick as a dog, I had a great week. I feel so lucky to have been able to do two wonderful (and very different) writing conferences this summer. Kenyon, as I blogged about, was emotionally and physically draining, but I […]

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My week at the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop

I spent the last week (Saturday-Saturday) at the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop in Gambier, Ohio and boy, was it a week. The week held so much good: inspiration, knowledge, friendship, solitude. But the week was also tough. I cried every day, for a variety of reasons: I missed Al and my kids (and I found being […]

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