(Tollesun, AZ: Tolsun Books, 2018) Sometimes I think about past versions of myself — the rebellious teenager, the closeted college student, the child — and wonder if I have changed at all. In spite of the daily dramas, do my … Continued
(Brooklyn, NY: Ugly Duckling Presse, 2016) I, like Laura Sims, have mulled over the various ways in which the world could end on many nights. She says it “is just a roundabout way of worrying about death, I suppose, though … Continued
(Evansville, IN: Southern Indiana Review Press, 2015) As a writer, a crucial, early lesson often taught is to learn how to show an experience with craft and content, rather than tell of what happened. That was one of my first … Continued
(Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2015) Every so often, I come across a poem that I share with everyone, even those not familiar with contemporary poetry. “How to Triumph Like a Girl,” the opening poem in Ada Limón’s Bright Dead Things, … Continued
(Pasadena, CA: Red Hen Press, 2015) My grandfathers both fought in World War II, my father remains an avid hunter, and I am terrified of guns. Despite this apparent funneling of ‘male toughness,’ fathers in general have an assumed history … Continued
(Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2015) People often seek comfort in labels and borders. Today, these exist for every aspect of our lives: race, class, gender, personality, intelligence, sexuality. The truth is that none of these are as black … Continued
(Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2014) Writers are often recommended to chronicle their dreams. Once recorded, one is expected to find the consequences within the strange images, the symbolism, the wild transformations. I could never capture them. My nightmares were never … Continued