Stories & Essays
This section is devoted to the serious writing that wouldn't be classified as poetry. Some of the early pieces posted are tied to non-creative endeavors. However, this is also the year of the short story for me. As I continue to write short stories (and hopefully find them homes in various literary magazines), I plan to add to this page.
100 Word Story
Gili: My Joy
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They had planned to name her “Joy”—or perhaps the Hebrew, “Gili”—this child of the moon whose life had waxed and waned so briefly, whose tiny body now nestled motionless in the crooked bend of Amelia’s arm.
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“She has your nose.” Amelia whispered before choking on a sob, her eyes drifting past her husband toward the window and the east where a shimmering of light spread slowly against the dark horizon. The morphine hadn’t helped. It was as if she were floundering underwater, searching for her daughter’s stolen heartbeat.
Feeling silence instead.
They had planned to name her “Joy.”
Off the Coast of Jakarta Coming Soon!
This piece of flash fiction was inspired by an episode of Primetime Live that I saw in the early 2000s. I wrote it as an exercise for a workshop I was taking and then forgot about it. I've included links to the news story of the event below my piece.
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The Duality of Masks
In this essay, I explore the polarized reactions to mask wearing, analyzing the overdetermined causes for those reactions while highlighting what the mask symbolizes. I wrote this piece at the request of my sister, who was in the process of putting together an anthology on teaching during the pandemic for Routledge. The book came out in June of 2021.
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Saturdays at McDonald's
This 2000 word memoir was initially written for a short story contest that was to center on the eating of food. The piece focuses on my early relationship with my father and the factors that contributed to that relationship. These factors were pivotal in my journey as a writer, so I'm including it here even though I did not win that contest.
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Wedding Sermon
A while back, one of my students asked me to give the sermon at her wedding, which was slightly stressful as she mentioned that the success of the ceremony hinged on what I ultimately had to say. Fortunately, she was pleased with the result, and I've been able to use parts of it in one of my lectures about fairy tales. The portion of the sermon that I'm sharing here contrasts the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" with the Disney version, exploring their ultimate messages about love.