PUBLICATIONS | Words in the Wild
Sea Swimming / KHÔRA
Creative nonfiction about a howl | Read here
Even then I didn't howl, not at the sky or the sea, not in any way you could hear. I was twenty-six and landlocked, didn't yet comprehend the strength of a scream. Had only been to the ocean once in my life. On the shore I felt small the way you feel small beneath the stars when you realize they are not twinkling pinheads in some tinkling lullaby but raging balls of fire with lives as complex as your own. The way the galaxy rolls out like a tide. The way your body understands where it came from.
Like a Deer in the Dark / Literary Mama
Creative nonfiction about a trip to Illinois | Read here
I’m here because I should be, not because I want to be. Love and duty and guilt are all bound up in a Gordian knot. Every fiber so tightly enmeshed, I can hardly parse one strand from the other. I’m either going to cry or burst out of my skin.
Take the Fruit / An Anthology of Religious Trauma
My essay “With Fear and Trembling” is published in this collection of stories about surviving high control religions. The book is edited by Stina French & Erica Hoffmeister; published by Listen to Your Skin Press, November 2024 | Purchase here
Together, we opened our mouths to sing of our blessed assurance, to savor that foretaste of glory divine. But shivering just beneath the blare of the organ, the laborious congregational Hallelujahs, I could feel the heat of the hellfire—banked and ready to burn.
PROSE / essays, creative nonfiction
There Is Always Someone Who Resists _ Portugal Calling on Medium _ March 2025
To Be or To Be _ A-Culturated on Medium _ February 2025
Only When It’s Happening to You _ Engage on Medium _ November 2024
The Thing with Teeth _ Engage on Medium _ October 2024
Homework ‘Til Your Dying Day _ Zero Readers Issue 7 _ September 2024
In the Depths of the Doldrums _ Engage on Medium _ August 2024
Postcards from America _ Engage on Medium _ August 2024
My Mother Says She Was a Zookeeper _ The Narrative Arc on Medium _ June 2024
The Arrogance of the English Language _ A-Culturated on Medium _ May 2024
What Are We Running From? _ A-Culturated on Medium _ May 2024
The Opposite of Nomad _ A-Culturated on Medium _ April 2024
Is AI Writing Any Good? _ Design, or Be Designed on Medium _ June 2023
The Thing About Visitors _ Portugal Living Magazine _ June 2023
No More Shame: A Case for Uncovering Middle Aged Legs _ Quail Bell Magazine _ June 2023
The Importance of Sponsoring Women of Color _ Design, or Be Designed on Medium _ March 2023
Life After a Layoff _ Design, or Be Designed on Medium _ February 2023
Same Song, Different Verse _ Portugal Living Magazine _ August 2022
The Honeymoon Effect _ Relish Portugal _ July 2021
Put It In Your Own Words: How to Find Your Voice and Set It Free _ Dropbox Design _ May 2020
Designing with Letters _ Dropbox Design _ April 2020
101,572 Words in 30 Days _ Dropbox Design _ March 2020
Permission to Speak _ Dropbox Design _ September 2019
POEMS / all sizes
Rubies _ Ache: The Body’s Experience of Religion / Flipped Mitten Press _ March 2024
Elasticine, Abattoir, Die Pretty, Tempest, and Alice Is My Middle Name _ Tupelo Quarterly _ November 2019
A library of cinépoems _ YouTube _ 2005 - 2024
PODCASTS / interviews
>>FROM MONTANA TO PORTUGAL with Janelle Holden _ 28-09-2025
A conversation about writing and emigrating out of the USA | Listen here
“I was worried when I left the U.S. that I would come to Europe and it would be so idyllic that I would forget all about my people. That is not the case at all. In fact, I have a much broader view of what is happening in the U.S. now because I left. When you’re in it you can’t see it as completely as when you’re removed from it.”
>>OUR VOICE with Reena Merchant _ 18-07-2020
A discussion about voice, courage, and permission to speak | Listen here
“If we're always learning and asking more questions, and being curious, and always finding, discovering new things about ourselves, discovering that we can change even when we're 85 years old, that is what makes life worth living. It's that old cliché about it's not the destination, it's the journey. I mean things become clichés because there's an element of truth in them many times. So, for me, I hope never to arrive because if I do, then I will have become stagnant and stale. I don't know. I don't want to be that person. I always want to be open and learning and being willing to admit that I was wrong and being willing to learn something from someone new.”
>>UX CAKE with Leigh Allen-Arrodondo _ 22-01-2020
A conversation about giving yourself permission to speak | Listen here
“Her actual words were: ‘You have more power than you know.’ That’s the kind of thing you have to sit with for a while. It was like a stone dropped in a pond — the ripples just kept spreading and spreading. …The longer I thought about it, the more I began to see a pattern in my life of silence. …I was waiting for someone to give me permission to speak or to make a move, and usually that person was a man. Because I was waiting for permission from someone who was in a position of power. So that was disturbing to realize, and it was kind of like The Wizard of Oz in that once you’ve seen behind the curtain, you can’t unsee it. I traced it back all the way to the way I was raised, in a very religious environment, where men are the heads of households and women are more submissive. Even though I thought I had broken free of that mindset, I realized it was just really embedded in my bones, and I was subconsciously waiting — in all situations in my life — instead of moving forward.”
PERSONAL PUBS / places I write regularly
The Long Scrawl _ Substack
she’s a word nerd _ Medium