Hello. I am a fiction writer who likes strange and magical worlds.
My publications include stories in Esquire, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, and anthologies like Best New American Voices, Best American Fantasy, New Stories from the Midwest, among others. I've also published poems in Indiana Review and Sonora Review, and my nonfiction was a finalist in the DIAGRAM essay contest.
I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University and a PhD in English (with a fiction concentration) from the University of Cincinnati. I've been in residence at the Yaddo artist colony and have attended the Sewanee and Bread Loaf conferences. In 2021 I was a Creative Arts Renewal Fellow by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and I’ve also received awards and fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council, the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, the Charles Taft Center for the Humanities, along with many others.
I live with my family in Indianapolis.
Genres
FICTION
I am primarily a fiction writer. My PhD was focused on fiction writing, and I recently finished a novel MIDDLEWOOD. Some of my favorite writers are Karen Russell, Kevin Wilson, Victor Lavalle, Neil Gaiman, Octavia Butler, Susanna Clarke, Leigh Bardugo, Stephen Millhauser, Jeff Vandermeer, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Colson Whitehead.
NONFICTION
At Syracuse, I studied nonfiction and poetry with Mary Karr. I wrote the first hundred pages of a memoir that explored my ancestry, rooted in Guadalajara, and my great-uncle's service during WWII in the little-known Mexican Air Force.
TEXT + IMAGE
Comics, graphic narratives, and other combinations of text and image are favorite forms of mine. I love a range of illustrated books, from Alison Bechdel's Fun Home to Emily Carroll's Through the Woods and Isabel Greenberg's Encyclopedia of Early Earth.
“Sometimes it is safer to
read maps with your feet.”