Misunderstandings

From The Sun Magazine, September, 2024

It wasn’t the first time someone had misread my expression. I frown when I’m concentrating. For a long time I didn’t realize this, and by the time I knew, the habit was too ingrained for me to quit.

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Ink: A Memoir

If you read it, it will stick in your mind for a good while, precisely because it is not bloated, self-indulgent, loaded with attitudinizing. It has an arc you can hold in your imagination and rotate, thinking about it from different angles.

John Wilson, “Giving Your Testimony” First Things

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Why She Hates Me

from Bateau 8.1, 2018

I’ve always kept it secret, how many of her secrets I’ve always known.

            “She refused to have sex on our wedding night,” he told me, the day we shared a brown bag lunch in his office.  He stared into the distance as he spoke, and I could see the grief hover around his silhouette like motes of dust….. 

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Baby

from Blackberry Winter, Winter 2018

When we collected Elizabeth from daycare that first snowy day, Puddin was waiting at home to greet her. “Baby!” she squealed, tottering across the room with open arms. “I have a baby!” It was love at first sight.

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Under Water

fromThe Sun Magazine, March 2017

The earnest therapist listened with detachment as I struggled with my misery and self-loathing. Then she asked the obvious question: “What if he doesn’t leave his wife?”

I had no answer.

In the tub I took a deep breath and sank entirely underwater. Had I lost my sense of right and wrong?

Creative Writing

 

Book

 Ink: A Memoir, published by the Michigan Writers Cooperative Press; winner of the 2018 Michigan Writers Chapbook Contest

Essays

“Misunderstandings,” The Sun Magazine, September 2024

“Why She Hates Me,” Bateau 8.1, 2018

“Baby,” Blackberry Winter, Winter 2018

"Under Water," The Sun Magazine, March 2017

 “Pregnant.”  The Bear River Review 2013

 “Transit.”  The Bear River Review 2012