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 remarkable artist and human, Chen Chen—to draft a book-length manuscript from my growing collection of poems. The resulting work emerged as a kind of "bio-pictography," as it interlaced autobiographical poems with original photographs. Essentially a hybrid memoir, I'd like to think the work also functions as a handbook for the authentically inclined, an illustrated manual that illuminates how a life guided by inner-truth over situational fear at every juncture of choice—be it sized small, medium, or Holy shit!—will no doubt be arduous, but it will also...and more importantly, if only eventually...be 150% worth it.

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I'm currently pursuing an MFA in Nonfiction with Goucher College, buckling down in the wordsmithery to refine my voice and expand 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, the work is evolving naturally into a zuihitsu, the fantastical Japanese literary form that feels spontaneous to read, but is in fact meticulously composed. I look forward to sharing individually published pieces in the near future, and in time, inviting you to read the book in its entirety.

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