publication
list
Forthcoming Late 2023
Dancing Girl Press
mundane objects: a chapbook
mundane objects traces a capture, a polaroid snap of time as it moves through and away from itself. In this work, the narrator, and by extension the reader, experiences a series of day in and day out moments in a world forever changed and overrun by a pandemic. The basicness of the “objects” operate as placeholders for the unraveling and then recreation of the narrator that is palpable for the reader. Each poem performs through the space of the work, building and inviting the reader deeper and deeper into what it means to survive, and then finally, to thrive. By meshing, and in some cases mashing, imagery and words together, this work creates a path where the reader is able to walk alongside the narrator through the hills and hollers of neurodivergence. mundane objects endeavors to provide a kind of insight on loneliness, disconnection, and the grip of mental illness as we flow through uncertain and chaotic times. This text echoes the burial and bloom cycle we all must pass through to live a life, full.
December 2022
Inverted Syntax: Fissured Tongue Volume 4
the landscape of waffle house
“the landscape of waffle house” is a three-part piece that performs as poetry while retaining the narrative space of a memoir-esque essay. The narrator relives for the reader (or herself) three memories, three competing moments, at the iconic, southern, fast-food restaurant, Waffle House. This piece plays with the idea of safety and the violence we enact upon ourselves by simply being. The images embedded in, and in some cases mashed into, the text serve as the placemat from which the reader ingests the words.
Winter 2022
Inverted Syntax: Issue 4
the landscape of the river
“the landscape of the river” echoes how it feels to live with two sides of yourself, an interior voice of “i” and the exterior voice of “you,” talking at once. This piece showcases an interior and exterior voice trying to break free from the pulls of depression and suicide that [still] have their claws in the narrator. The river runs through the poem, a cold reminder to be careful with your edges.
*Additionally, I am honored that a portion of this poem was selected for display on Issue 4's back cover, and was nominated by Inverted Syntax for a Pushcart Prize.
Winter 2022
Inverted Syntax: Issue 4
the landscape of sound: the highway
“the landscape of sound: the highway” is a meditative conversation between the two sides of the brain, “i” and “you,” about hearing sounds throughout the day and night, and the questioning of one’s sanity. In a way these two voices are talking to one another, but they also are speaking with the reader, engaging them. As these selves recognize the limitations of what they know [or don’t], the photograph bordering the text reminds us that what haunts us can occasionally hold some light.
July 2022
Poetry Northwest: Volume XVII, Issue 1-Summer & Fall 2022
Winner of the PNW Presenting series, Chosen by Senior Editor, Xavier Cavazos
mundane objects: the evening walk
"mundane objects: the evening walk” is, in short, a cacophony. This poem explores the fissures in the mind when the stress of living a neurodivergent life during a pandemic wears the narrator thin. Juggling the potential future of a parent with cognitive issues and her own mental pathway complications, the narrator leads the reader through something that seems as simple as an evening walk is anything but. The space of this poem is interrupted constantly by gray matter, as the brain of someone with cognitive issues – whether from aging or mental illness – is similarly marred. This poem is about the grief of continual [and unavoidable] loss, and the strange texture of reality when backed up against the fluid expanse of our minds.
current projects
INTERIOR
In INTERIOR, the narrator traverses and explores fluctuating landscapes, searching for something that resembles harmony and solace within her mind, as one who lives with a complicated list of mental disorders. This work offers a unique perspective, which challenges the typical structure of a memoir narrative by blending free-form poetic prose, photography, and art to include the reader on a journey home. By playing with the space of the page, evolving personal pronouns throughout the narrator’s journey, and using poetry as storytelling, the reader is given space to accompany the mental illness/mental health journey of the narrator. Through this manuscript, the narrator builds on some lessons, while having to learn others again and again. Her interactions within the mental-medical community leave her constantly trying to fix her fissures until ultimately, she recognizes and confronts the stigmas, and challenges the very definition of what is considered “sane.” INTERIOR is an exploration and an intimate examination of what home looks like within a neurodivergent mind. With intersections of expectations, cities and buildings, people, and the untended wilds of nature, the search for safety leads the reader into their own discoveries and conclusions, asking, where is your home? How do you find it?
This manuscript is complete and available for publication.
Note: This manuscript was longlisted for the Dzanc Books 2021 Nonfiction Prize. Additionally, several of the pieces from this manuscript have been published and can be read or purchased from my complete list of publications.
Pretend I Always Looked Like This
This hybrid poetry-photography-art collection is a curation of items that span the deep arc of a body as it experiences the [often] gutting nature of connection, and the fruitful space of learning the cyclical natures of the self. As the narrator grows through the space of the work, so do the pieces becoming more and more reflective on ideas of identity and holding a tender space for all the elements of who you were, are, and will become. This work performs as poetry, while being imbued with the tactile textures of 35mm film photography and acrylic paint; this combination, the hybridization of poetics, film, and art, invites the reader deeper into the catacombs of a life.
This manuscript is complete and available for publication.
The Food Store Diaries
The Food Store Diaries is a collection of story-essays which focus on the combination of our messy internal spaces and the hard and solid place of the grocery store. Each piece investigates questions of identity, planes of existence, gender and sex, and neurodivergence. The steady setting of a supermarket brimming with options often provides ample space for contemplation and, sometimes, revelation.
This project is in progress, but you can read one of the stories within this work on On The Run Fiction.
