I am a writer who explores the difference between desire and longing: to make sense of queer identity and the American cultures of violence and whiteness. I completed a novel called Potential Monsters at MacDowell. It follows a queer family in New Jersey in the first year post Columbine. Originally from New Jersey, I currently live in Seattle.
Stories from my yet to be published short story collection WE HAD NO RULES have been published in Story Quarterly, Calyx, Vol 1 Brooklyn, Moss, The Bellingham Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Wildness from Platypus Press. Additional stories and essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Vol 1 Brooklyn, Drunken Boat, Electric Literature, The Nervous Breakdown, Arts & Letters, and Shadow Map: An anthology of Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM Press). The essay “The Language of Kudzu” was recognized as a notable essay in Best American Essay 2016.
I've received grants and fellowships from 4Culture, Artist Trust, Jack Straw Media Gallery, The Hub City Writer's Project, and MacDowell (2015, 2017).
As a community member my focus has been on visibility of underrepresented writers and the necessity to reimagine and recreate the publishing process. The James Franco Review was an experiment in this.
Portrait by Itzel Santiago Pastrana
