Hi there. I'm a couple days late posting this, but I have a new short story up in BULL Magazine. It's one of my longer stories (and maybe my longest published story to date? I'm not sure, but it's definitely in the top three). The title is "You Don't Get to Do This," and explores a variety of subjects, from impulses, desire, special needs parenting, and how we react to unhappiness.
You can read the story here.
Thank you to editor Benjamin Drevlow for giving this work a home, and for an enjoyable path from acceptance to a beautiful publication.
This piece is part of my short story collection, which I'm in the processing of editing as we speak. Well, we're not actually speaking; and I'm writing this post, so that means I'm not actually working on my edits. You know what I mean. Don't look at me like that.
I hope you enjoy reading my work. The latest issue of BULL is full of great work, and I'm honored to be a tiny part of that collective.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
2018 Readings, 2019 Goals
Welcome to 2019, and welcome to my annual reading recap.
Here's what I wrote last year:
"For 2018, I want to double down on small press support, especially with so many eagerly anticipated titles forthcoming. I'm not going to make any grand, specific goals, because I'll undoubtedly fail, so I'll shoot for 60-70 books.
I have a Goodreads account, but I only use it to update my readings, not to rate or review titles, I'm going to do that more this year, but I feel uneasy with the horribly unscientific nature of the site, but I do know that ratings are helpful for small press writers. In lieu of ratings or playing favorites, the books that I've highlighted in bold spoke to me in various ways. You can call these my favorites, or merely strong highlights."
While I didn't make any "grand, specific goals," I did fall short of my 60-70 book goal, ending 2018 with 43 books read. And I said I'd use Goodreads more, but I went in the exact opposite direction: over the summer, I took a social media break, and in the process, I deleted my Goodreads account. There were a couple factors in this decision. One, Amazon. Two, Amazon. The company has owned Goodreads for a couple years now, and while its sometimes (sadly) the only option for some small presses, I just couldn't take the layout, the star ratings, the lists with no substance, the marketing gimmicks. What this means for me is I'll simply have to do better myself about supporting small presses, writers, and journals in ways outside Goodreads. I'm almost never on Facebook anymore, but I might have to take a "lesser of two evils" approach and use my Facebook more to highlight new books and writers I discover in 2019. I believe I do that well enough on Twitter, but I'll double down and make sure I do across multiple platforms, but breaks and gaps will happen.
2019 reading goals: the usual, right ones. Read more, support indie presses, and read diversely.
Happy New Year, y'all.
1.) A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews
2.) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
3.) Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
4.) Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
5.) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
6.) Bad Anatomy by Hannah Cohen
7.) The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang
8.) The Science of Unvanishing Objects by Chloe N. Clark
9.) Eats of Eden by Tabitha Blankenbiller
10.) White Girls by Hilton Als
11.) Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
12.) Cult of Loretta by Kevin Maloney
13.) Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
14.) Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu
15.) Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar
16.) We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
17.) So Sad Today by Melissa Broder
18.) This Will be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins
19.) Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
20.) How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
21.) Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin
22.) Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
23.) The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
24.) No Name in the Street by James Baldwin
25.) The Thibodaux Massacre by John DeSantis
26.) The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin
27.) Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
28.) Redeployment by Phil Klay
29.) Tell Me If You're Lying by Sarah Sweeney
30.) An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
31.) Southern Cryptozoology: A Field Guide to Beasts of the Southern Wild by Allie Marini
32.) The Girl & the Fox Pirate by Kate Gehan
33.) Hungry People by Tasha Coryell
34.) Feel Free by Zadie Smith
35.) The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg
36.) Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson
37.) Florida by Lauren Groff
38.) How to Sit by Tyrese Coleman
39.) Pretend We Live Here by Genevieve Hudson
40.) The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
41.) The Wrong Way to Save Your Life by Megan Stielstra
42.) Person by Sam Pink
43.) The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Here's what I wrote last year:
"For 2018, I want to double down on small press support, especially with so many eagerly anticipated titles forthcoming. I'm not going to make any grand, specific goals, because I'll undoubtedly fail, so I'll shoot for 60-70 books.
I have a Goodreads account, but I only use it to update my readings, not to rate or review titles, I'm going to do that more this year, but I feel uneasy with the horribly unscientific nature of the site, but I do know that ratings are helpful for small press writers. In lieu of ratings or playing favorites, the books that I've highlighted in bold spoke to me in various ways. You can call these my favorites, or merely strong highlights."
While I didn't make any "grand, specific goals," I did fall short of my 60-70 book goal, ending 2018 with 43 books read. And I said I'd use Goodreads more, but I went in the exact opposite direction: over the summer, I took a social media break, and in the process, I deleted my Goodreads account. There were a couple factors in this decision. One, Amazon. Two, Amazon. The company has owned Goodreads for a couple years now, and while its sometimes (sadly) the only option for some small presses, I just couldn't take the layout, the star ratings, the lists with no substance, the marketing gimmicks. What this means for me is I'll simply have to do better myself about supporting small presses, writers, and journals in ways outside Goodreads. I'm almost never on Facebook anymore, but I might have to take a "lesser of two evils" approach and use my Facebook more to highlight new books and writers I discover in 2019. I believe I do that well enough on Twitter, but I'll double down and make sure I do across multiple platforms, but breaks and gaps will happen.
2019 reading goals: the usual, right ones. Read more, support indie presses, and read diversely.
Happy New Year, y'all.
1.) A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews
2.) The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
3.) Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
4.) Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
5.) How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
6.) Bad Anatomy by Hannah Cohen
7.) The Border of Paradise by Esmé Weijun Wang
8.) The Science of Unvanishing Objects by Chloe N. Clark
9.) Eats of Eden by Tabitha Blankenbiller
10.) White Girls by Hilton Als
11.) Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
12.) Cult of Loretta by Kevin Maloney
13.) Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
14.) Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu
15.) Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar
16.) We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
17.) So Sad Today by Melissa Broder
18.) This Will be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins
19.) Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
20.) How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
21.) Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin
22.) Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
23.) The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
24.) No Name in the Street by James Baldwin
25.) The Thibodaux Massacre by John DeSantis
26.) The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin
27.) Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
28.) Redeployment by Phil Klay
29.) Tell Me If You're Lying by Sarah Sweeney
30.) An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
31.) Southern Cryptozoology: A Field Guide to Beasts of the Southern Wild by Allie Marini
32.) The Girl & the Fox Pirate by Kate Gehan
33.) Hungry People by Tasha Coryell
34.) Feel Free by Zadie Smith
35.) The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg
36.) Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson
37.) Florida by Lauren Groff
38.) How to Sit by Tyrese Coleman
39.) Pretend We Live Here by Genevieve Hudson
40.) The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
41.) The Wrong Way to Save Your Life by Megan Stielstra
42.) Person by Sam Pink
43.) The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
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