Well internet, you only get to do this for the first time once. So (drumroll) I HAVE SOME PERSONAL NEWS!!! I am, right this very second, realizing a lifelong dream. My debut collection of short stories will be published by Tin House Books in Fall of 2022!!! I was a student at the Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop several times (a whopping four times, actually). It’s where I found teachers who encouraged me, and met writing buddies who have become cherished friends. So it is particularly special to me that the place that welcomed me so warmly into the writing community is the same place that will launch my work into the world.
I am so excited to be working with Elizabeth DeMeo and I am absolutely bowled over by her belief in me. I know my work is in very good hands.
I am also so grateful to Kerry D’Agostino at Curtis Brown, Ltd. Her patience, expert guidance and enthusiastic support came at just the right time. I would not be celebrating right now without the early support of literary magazines and their editors who took a chance on me and chose to publish my stories. I have been lucky to work with wonderful editors, and I hope all of my current and future readers out there will all will continue to support lit mags. I am also immensely grateful to all my writing buddies who have helped me shape my stories over the years, who have offered advice, and who have made me a better writer. Over the past decade, I wrote all these stories because I really needed to read them. To my future readers, I really hope you find something in them that you may have needed too.
For many of us (myself included) the past couple of years have been marked with both personal and collective losses. And both private and public grief. For me, this marks a new beginning, and I hope everyone that needs one can find a new beginning too. My (nearly) last note, is that I wouldn’t be here without the support of my spouse who has been my number one fan from the very beginning. His support means the world to me. I always thought I’d be very cool about this, but now that it’s finally happened, it turns out I am actually ALL CAPS EXCITED!!