Creative

Work in progress

I’m completing a memoir, The Only Girl in the Record Store, which examines a life kaleidoscopically through my evolving musical tastes—from Kenny Rogers to Thriller to the Cure and beyond—and the many tools from which I sought answers over the years: quizzes and astrology, snapshots of therapy sessions, and my Big Fish-esque father’s tantalizing mythology. It incorporates research and evocative storytelling to illuminate a lifelong quest to fit in, the midlife autism diagnosis that told me I never would, and the music that saved me along the way.

In the works: a family autofiction that shares a uniquely American multigenerational saga delving into race, secrets, and the drive for a better life in the twentieth-century American West.

I also write poetry and poetic hybrid essays. My lyric “dreamoir” (with thanks to Wendy Ortiz for the term) chapbook, Lavatoria: Dreams of Shame, is available for publication.

Artist statement

I am a poet who writes primarily in prose and a logician who cares almost exclusively about subjective human experience. My work seeks to combine an immersive experience of emotion with an intellectual exploration of language, minimizing volume while maintaining language’s furred and floral possibilities—including narrative—and collating and juxtaposing elements of time and perspective. I write always through a feminist lens, although that lens contains flaws due to the erosions of generation, race, sexuality, culture, upbringing, faith and lack thereof, idealism, neuroatypicality, economic class, and aesthetic orientation. Central to the work is taking a jeweler’s loupe to the aberrations to examine myself, my lens, and my flaws—in other words, every work is a question.

Publications

Honors, awards & readings

  • Reading from A Harp in the Stars as part of the anthology’s book tour, Lighthouse Writers,  Denver, October 2021
  • Jennifer Wortman book launch, invited opening reader, Lighthouse Writers, Denver, June 2019
  • Four-week writing residency, Vermont Studio Center, February 2019
  • Invited reader, Unchaste Readers Front Range, Denver, May 2017
  • Shortlist, Disquiet International Prize (nonfiction), April 2017
  • Invited reader, Kudos Live (recently published writers), Lit Fest, Lighthouse Writers, Denver, June 2016
  • Invited reader, The Denver Heat, August 2014
  • Invited reader, The Draft 22.0 (Lighthouse Writers Workshop), May 2014
  • Finalist, Bakeless Prize in Creative Nonfiction

Education & writing community

  • Survey volunteer, VIDA Count, 2017-2019
  • Graduate, Lighthouse Writers Workshop Book Project (2013-2015)
  • Tin House Summer Writers Workshop (nonfiction), studied under David Shields, July 2015
  • Attended NonfictioNOW 2015 (Flagstaff) and 2018 (Phoenix)
  • Lit Fest nonfiction workshop, studied under Robin Hemley, Lighthouse Writers, July 2014
  • Partner/Owner in The Writers Block, LLC, a Denver writing space (2010-2017)
  • Student and instructor, Lighthouse Writers Workshop (Denver)
  • Judge, Colorado Book Awards, 2011

Teaching experience

  • Invited Lecturer, Strategic Writing for Diverse Audiences, University of Colorado Boulder, April 2023
  • Volunteer, writing group at The Gathering Place, Denver, August 2017
  • Creative Letter Writing. Young Writers Program, Lighthouse Writers, Denver, October 2015
  • Hero’s Journey Smackdown: Hero vs. Heroine. Masculine vs. Feminine. Fiction vs. Memoir. Friday 500, Lighthouse Writers, Denver, May 2015
  • Writing Your Vision and Mission (with Laura Bond). Young Writers Program, Lighthouse Writers/Newton Middle School, Littleton, Colo., April 2015
  • Understanding Real-Life Stories via the Feminine Heroic Journey. The Book Project, Lighthouse Writers, Denver, March 2015
  • Mini-Blogging: Purposeful, Technology-Enabled Conversation. Lit Fest, Lighthouse Writers, Denver, June 2010

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Images on Instagram