Two (Tiny) Watershed Moments for me

Two small things that mean the fucking world to me are now true! Or said another way, I get to tick two more boxes in my life goals list as a literary (non)fiction author.

I’m in The Rumpus at last!

One, I’ve been submitting short stories and essays to The Rumpus for over a decade. I’ll continue to do so in the future as well. But one of the things about having a great publicist is that they open up doors to you that you can’t open yourself, which is part of the reason that great publicists are worth their weight in gold, and for me, that means being in a dope interview in The Rumpus about one of my books. In this case, DREAM POP ORIGAMI.

I’ll be reading at the Woodmere Library (the Main Library) in TC!

Two, I’m going back to Traverse City, Michigan later this week to give a reading at the Woodmere Library from DREAM POP ORIGAMI as a published author and Brilliant Books, the awesome local bookstore in TC, is going to be selling my memoir. This is something I’ve wanted and daydreamed about since I began my MFA back in 2007. Every time I’d looked up tickets to TC, they were way too expensive. Actually more expensive than flying from LAX to Rome. But after spending time with an old friend of mine from Traverse City in Portland, Oregon, of all places, I got the hookup. This opportunity just kinda fell onto my lap and now I’ll be able to see old friends, classmates, crushes, and ex’s for the first time in thirty years. Can you believe that shit?

Interview with Bonnie Nadzam up at Lit Pub

My interview with my good friend, fellow Midwesterner, & USC cohort, Bonnie Nadzam, is now up at Lit Pub and I have to say, it was absolutely one of the most interesting, intelligent, & culturally relevant talks I’ve had with anyone in a long time, in person or via email. Until we can kick it at a local café in LA, this conversation will have to do. On a rainy day, it almost feels enough.

Los Angeles Review of Books Interview for CLS&OE

I talked with my talented, generous, and smart friend and fellow fiction writer, classmate, colleague, and Midwesterner writer in exile, Bryan Hurt about a ton of shit: Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments, grad school, living and studying in LA, workshop at USC, exploring the counterfactual reality of Los Angeles, nostalgia, mixed-race identity in the Midwest, writing from the outside, the role and mission of experimental writing, and the value of pyrotechnical syntax on the page, among other things, for the Los Angeles Review of Books. If you have a second, please read this interview, which will definitely be one of the most interesting ones you’ll read this month. I promise.

Two Interviews for Two Versions of the World

In the past couple weeks, I’ve done a bunch of interviews—all of which I loved, all of them for different reasons—and the ones I did with Gauraa at No Contact Magazine and with Peter at ZYZZYVA are very close to my heart. My interview in ZYZZYVA was a joy because Peter was a smart and insightful reader who noticed things I really wanted readers to notice, like for example, that “Sola’s Asterisk” is in the middle of the collection because that short story is essentially the heart of this collection in so many ways, both as microcosm and macrostructure. Beyond that, I love and respect ZYZZYVA so much, so having an interview in that journal about my debut short story collection is a huge fucking deal for me. And my interview in No Contact was a joy because Gauraa brought critical and cultural theory into a really smart conversation while focusing exactly where I wanted her to, the discussion of small presses, BIPOC identity and characterization, nonlinearity, and a sustained conversation about the interludes in this book. Beyond that, I loved the medium for our interview done completely with Instagram DMs. So, I got to enjoy both old school and new school interviews using different media while have some dope conversations in the process. Life is good!

Juked Interview for Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments

I had a fantastic conversation with the talented and astute writer, Ashley Farmer, about my short story collection, Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments over at Juked. If you have a moment, it’s an engaging read I think.