Check out my short story Good Housekeeping in the latest issue of Coffin Bell. CW: Child abuse, sexual violence, drug addiction
Category: Uncategorized
Books I Read in 2020
I don’t finish books I don’t enjoy. I recommend every one of these, and I am grateful to the writers who kept me company this year. Novels Half in Love with Death by Emily Ross Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer The Known World by Ernest P. Jones The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon Chemistry by Weike Wang When Reasons End by Yiyun Li The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney Normal People by Sally Rooney Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel The Summer Demands…
Howling Mad Review Issue 1
I have a flash nonfiction piece up at the first issue of Howling Mad Review, a magazine run by two of my favorite people, fellow Ashland MFA writers Amy Zanarek and Jason Gaidis. Check it out here.
2019 Reading
Here is a list of all the books I read in 2019, minus the self-help and diet guides because you don’t need to know all that. Within find poetry collections, short story collections, memoir, investigative journalism, literary fiction, horror, young adult, and a western. I don’t finish books I don’t like, so I recommend every single one. The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson Red Clocks by Leni Zumas Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai The Hundred Year Flood by Matthew Salesses Rough Animals by Rae DelBianco Soy Sauce for Beginners by Kirstin Chen The Mars Room by Rachel…
10 Poignant Novels Set Amidst Major Events of the 20th Century
The Ghost Daughter was included in this line up of cool books. Check out the video here.
Scoundrel Time
Authors Karen Bender and Paula Whyman are fiction editors of a cool literary magazine called Scoundrel Time. I’m really proud to say they were kind enough to work with me on my story Say His Name. When you read it you’ll know who was in my heart while I wrote it. Still waiting for some justice, by the way. Check out Scoundrel Time here.
Books I’ve Read in 2018
I meant to read fifty books this year but I only made it to forty-six whole ones. I don’t finish books I don’t enjoy, and except for one by a dead author that I had to read for work, I enjoyed every single one on this list in varying degrees enough to not throw across the room. (Just kidding I would never throw a book except that I have thrown a book and I will throw a book again if one makes me mad enough.) Back to my 2018 reading, listed here in the order in which I read them….
Twenty Nine Years After
Twenty-nine years ago the Loma Prieta earthquake happened at 5:04 and changed my life forever after. The Loma Prieta earthquake and the fifteen seconds I spent cowering under a big oak desk while the ceiling came down in the hundred year old building I was working in changed how I viewed every other second that came after. The Loma Prieta earthquake and the two kind people (one who was someone’s love, one who was someone’s dad) who died on the other side of the wall during those fifteen seconds changed the way I treated every other person I met after….
Stephon Clark Is Our Son
I’ve lost the love of friends and family members because of my stand on racial justice in this country. Black lives matter. How controversial this simple concept seems to be to so many White people. Today is Good Friday. Two days before Easter. As a Catholic woman I am celebrating the most meaningful holiday season in my Liturgical calendar. In the Gospel of John 13:34, Christ gives the toughest order of all time: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Our Brother knew…
I Fear For My Safety
The police who cornered Stephon Clark in his grandparents’ backyard and shot him down say they “feared for their safety.” They thought he had a gun. He had a cell phone. I was at the protest the other day in Sacramento. We circled the park across City Hall. We marched through the streets, climbed onto the freeway and blocked traffic, stormed the arena where we blocked the entrance for people coming to the Kings game. Stephon Clark was a student at Sac High when I taught there. I knew him. Does that matter? I wonder. I wonder about what matters…
