CREATIVE Writing

BREATHE! (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Winner of Missouri Review's Perkoff Prize for nonfiction (2023)

Published by Missouri Review (Volume 46, Issue Number 4-Winter 2023) (Available as digital subscription or print copy)

[Musical inspiration: Breathe, Pink Floyd]

ABOUT MY HUSBAND (eulogy)

Eulogy for Walter John Bornhorst (2024)

[Musical Inspiration: American Boy, Estelle]

THE BOTHER OF WATERMELON SEEDS (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Published (hard copy only) by Santa Monica Review (Fall issue) (2020)

Re-published by Barren Magazine (Issue #23-2023)

[Musical Inspiration: Trigk-Trigk Ta Potirakia, George Dalaras & Bampis Tsertos]

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE (speech)

Commencement Address at West Nottingham Academy (June 2023)

[Musical inspiration: Burning Down the House, Talking Heads]

OXYGEN TO THE BRAIN (personal essay)

Published by Bangalore Review (2023)

[Musical inspiration: Waving a White Flag, The Smile]

WHEN IT'S OVER (flash fiction)

Published by Flash Fiction Magazine (2022)

[Musical inspiration: I've been High, REM]

THE WONDER OF A SEA SPONGE (flash fiction)

Semifinalist in American Short(er) Fiction Contest

Short List for the 2022 New Flash Fiction Prize

Published in New Flash Fiction Review’s Contest Issue (2022)

[Musical Inspiration: Subterranean Homesick Alien, Radiohead]

THE PERFECT HUSBAND (personal essay-satire)

Humor Finalist, Missouri Review Miller Audio Prize Contest (2021)

Audio Recording at Miller Aud-Cast #29 (Oct. 2021)

Honorable Mention, 47th New Millennium Writing Awards (2019)

Published by High Shelf Press (Issue VIII) (2019)

[Musical Inspiration: American Boy, Estelle]

ROAD OUT OF DAMASCUS (short story-fiction)

Finalist, Jack Dyer Fiction Prize

Honorable Mention, Glimmer Train Short Story Award for new writers

Published by Crab Orchard Review (Vol. 22) (2018)

Re-published by fresh.ink (2019)

[Musical Inspiration: Ruby Falls, Guster]

SHISHA (short story-fiction)

Winner, Tethered by Letters’ Short Story Contest

Finalist in PNWA Literary Contest 

Published in F(r)iction #7 (2017)

[Musical Inspiration: Third Piano Concerto, Sergei Rachmaninoff]

NEW, USEFUL AND NONOBVIOUS (personal essay-creative nonfiction)  

Finalist, Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction

Semi-finalist, Ruminate’s VanderMey Nonfiction Prize

Published by Reed Magazine (Issue #153) (2020) 

(Note: The events depicted in the essay were streamlined for literary purposes and didn’t all happen in a single day.)

[Musical Inspiration: Renegades, X-Ambassadors]

READY OR NOT (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Published by Superstition Review (Vol. 25) (2020)

[Musical Inspiration: I, Kendrick Lamar]

CRUMBS ON THE FLOOR (short story-fiction)

An earlier version of this story earned Honorable Mention in the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for new writers. Although it is a standalone story, it is also the first chapter of an as-yet-unpublished novel about friendship. The novel was a Semifinalist in the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Contest.

Published by The Midnight Oil (Vol. 2) (2019)

[Musical Inspiration: Waiting for the Sun, The Doors]

HOOKED AND HANGING (short story-fiction)

Although it is a standalone story, it is also a late chapter in the same as-yet-unpublished novel as above.

Published by The Write Launch (Jan. issue) (2019)

[Musical Inspiration: Broad-Shouldered Beasts, Mumford & Sons]

ABOUT MY DAD (eulogy)

Eulogy for George N. Hatsopoulos (2018)

[Musical Inspiration: Kyra Giorgena, George Dalaras]

GREECE THROUGH A LENS (essay)

Introduction to ZOI, a book of photography by Stella Johnson (2018)

[Musical Inspiration: To Spiti Mou to Patriko, Giorgos Zambetas]

THE WAY OUT (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Published by Antioch Review (Vol. 76, No.3) (2018)

[Musical Inspiration: As We Enter, Damian Marley & Nas]

PARISIAN KISSES (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Published by HCE Review (Vol. II, Issue II) (2018)

[Musical Inspiration: Echoes, Pink Floyd]

RESTIVE AND UPRISING (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Published by Dreamers Creative Writing (Year 1 Anthology) (2018)

An earlier version of the essay, called Rejection, was published in Poetry and Business (2016) and was the basis for the short story, Road out of Damascus

[Musical Inspiration: Nina Cried Power, Hozier]

SEEING IN THE DARK (personal essay-creative nonfiction)

Published by Bellevue Literary (#33) (2017)

[Musical Inspiration: The Funeral, Band of Horses]

FINGERPRINT (short story-fiction)

Runner-up, Prole Books' Prolitzer Prose Competition

Published in Prole21 (2016)

[Musical Inspiration: So. Central Rain, REM]

IRON DOME (short story-fiction)

Editor's Pick, 2015 Northern Colorado Writers Contest

Published in Pooled Ink: 2015 NCW Contest Winners (2015)

[Musical Inspiration: Take Me to Church, Hozier]