In 2021, I completed my MFA in Poetry with New England College. A highlight of my time in the program was collaborating with my thesis mentor—brilliant poet, author, educator, and all-around marvelous artist and human, Chen Chen—to draft a book-length manuscript from my growing collection of poems. The work emerged as a kind of "bio-pictography," if you will, as it interlaced a curation of autobiographical poems and original photographs. I came to view the book not just a hybrid memoir, but as a poetic "field guide" for truthseeking mortals, an illustrated manual meant to reveal how a life guided by inner-truth over situational fear at every juncture of choice—be it sized small, medium, or Holy shit!—will surely be arduous, but it will also, and more importantly...if only eventually...be 150% worth it.

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I'm currently pursuing a "sibling" MFA in Nonfiction with Goucher College, buckling down in the wordsmithery to refine my voice and elevate my work as an essayist. Along the way, I'm reshaping the manuscript to include nonfiction vignettes, and am excited to find that in "following the brush" as I write, its shape is naturally evolving into a zuihitsu, the inimitable Japanese literary form that feels improvisational and spontaneous to read, but is in fact meticulously composed. I look forward to sharing individually published essays in the near future, and in time, inviting you to read the memoir in its entirety as a modern-day pillow book for the imaginatively inclined.

Chen had some incredibly gracious words to share about my writing during his introduction to my graduation reading. Words such as (((blush)))...