Poetry, Fiction, & Essays
This section is devoted to the more "serious" writing. Some of the early pieces posted are tied to non-creative endeavors. Others are tied to pieces that have taken a while to find a home. Enjoy!
Refractions
White light when refracted splits into all the colors of the rainbow. Much like this refraction, the author’s relationship with her father, who died when she was seventeen, was nuanced and varied. This collection of poems follows her journey to understanding the man that he was and the man that he came to be through their shared love of music.
It is a journey from unknowing to knowing, from distance to acceptance. Along the way, as his health deteriorated, it became a journey of desperation. At times stark, at times lyrical, Refractions illustrates the complexity of familial love, highlighting the ways we communicate when we do not have the words to speak.
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The Duality of Masks
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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.
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.”
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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.