Acknowledgments
Every writer belongs to a lineage of ancestors and network of contemporaries, literary or otherwise. Articulating these influences challenges the mythology of the writer as a lone wolf, and destabilizes the power imbalance between writers and readers wherein the former is treated simultaneously as celebrity, politico, and guru. Below follows a necessarily incomplete list of the people and groups that have made my work possible.
For C—, for saving my life For a—, for saving my life For J—, for saving my life
None of this is possible without my partner, who insisted I believe in myself during a time in my life when I didn't believe in anything, who loved me when I deserved anything but love. They convinced me that I had something to say, and that it was worth saying. Everything I do is for them. Everything I do is because of them.
My oldest friend changed my life entirely. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make sense of our connection. I still don't understand it. I still don't understand them. Nevertheless, bearing witness to their resolve is the reason I can understand the world, what it is, how it functions. They gifted me my eyes.
J— told me I wasn't alone. Sometimes that's all a person needs to survive, more than food, more than water. To know you're not alone will give you the strength necessary to find food, water, and everything else a body needs. Better yet: it will give you the courage.
McCormack Writing Center changed my life, not only by inviting me to join their community of writers, but also by inviting me at exactly the right moments. It's supernatural, how they are able to draw together people who can enable each other to change and grow.
If I hadn't been a part of MWC, I never would have become a part of Relatively Queer. My two co-facilitators taught me how to collaborate, how to teach, and how to cultivate queer and trans community. I will always be grateful for their care and friendship.
If I hadn't been a part of MWC, I never would have met my MWC forever friends, a group of writers too generous to bear. I learned everything I know about fiction from them, as well as from our fearless faculty leader. Before them, I wasn't really sure I was a writer. Now I'm absolutely certain.
The queer kink and drag scenes in Los Angeles are sprawling, with no bounds or center. The people I met as I moved into and through them are as artful and inventive as any writer I've ever met. Those who became my friends are where my writing gets all of its kick and flavor.
I learn from every artist I encounter, but a few I find myself returning to over and over and must recognize. First, the uncredited authors of every freely distributed zine. Second: Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Toni Morrison, Roberto Bolaño, Saidiya Hartman, Starr Davis, Lucille Clifton, Ling Ma, Jackie Ess.
I owe my life to every anarchist, anti-authoritarian, and anti-imperialist fighting for what they desire, for the liberation of their peoples, and for the obliteration of every imperial power and system of domination, including interpersonal violence, abuse, and coercion. I write from, despite, and against the settler colonial states of amerikkka. Burn it to the fucking ground.
Awards, Workshops, Grants, Residencies, and Fellowships
Below follow my rejections, acceptances, and pending submissions for awards, workshops, grants, residencies, and fellowships. Accolades and institutional support are not critical to the development of an emerging writer. Pursuing them — even receiving them — can be distracting and detrimental. However, writers, emerging and emerged, often doubt themselves, and external validation can go a long way in boosting a writer's morale. I encourage emerging writers to pursue these kinds of opportunities only when application and participation are of no cost, and when the writer is confident in their ability to reject what they're offered, should they feel compelled to.
2027
Lambda Literary Creative Incubator with Jeanne Thornton Cost: $725
2026
McCormack Writing Center Autumn Workshop (Novel) with Venita Blackburn Cost: $1200
McCormack Writing Center Summer Workshop (Short Fiction) with Emma Copley Eisenberg Cost: $2000
2025
Longlist, Isele Nonfiction Prize
Periplus Collective Fellowship (Fiction) Resigned in May 2025 for personal reasons
2024
Finalist, Otherwise Fellowship
Brooklyn Poets Fellowship “Poetry and Legalism: Articulating the Forbidden,” with Starr Davis Cost: $395, awarded full scholarship
Granta Nature Writing Workshop with Jessica J. Lee Cost: £1000; declined due to financial inability
California’s Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) Quick Grant Award: $500, for professional development relating to my art practice
Kenyon Review Summer Online Writers Workshop (Creative Nonfiction) Cost: $895, awarded $500 scholarship from Kenyon Review; declined due to financial inability
Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop Cost: $3000; declined due to financial inability
Kolaj Institute Poetry & Collage Residency Cost: $500, agreed to barter five collages as payment in lieu of residency fee; resigned mid-residency for personal reasons
McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) Online Seminar “On Collage,” with Aisha Sabatani Sloan Cost: $600, awarded full scholarship
2023
Finalist, Washington Square Review New Voices Award
Pending
Lighthouse Works 2027 Fellowship Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Mt. San Angelo Summer 2027 Residency Millay Arts 2027 Core Residency Vermont Studio Center 2027 Residency Mesa Refuge 2027 Residency Nightboat Books 2027 Editorial Fellowship
Waitlisted
Kenyon Review 2025 Winter Online Writers Workshop Fall 2024 Orion Online Environmental Writers' Workshop McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Summer Workshop Kenyon Review 2024 Residential Writers Workshop Kenyon Review 2024 Winter Online Writers Workshop
Rejected
2027 Queer | Art Mentorship nina Idyllwild 2027 Residency Monson Arts Winter 2027 Residency McCormack Writing Center 2026 Online Speculative Fiction Workshop Stanford University 2025-2027 Wallace Stegner Fellowship The Maureen Seaton Poetry Prize 2025 Fine Arts Work Center 2025 Summer Workshop 2025 Ann Friedman Weekly Fellowship Quarterly West 2024 Prose Contest Welcome to My Homepage Digital Artist 2025 Residency Program Latinx in Publishing 2025 Mentorship Program McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Summer Residency Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Mt. St. Angelo Summer 2025 Residency Brooklyn Poets 2025 Mentorship Program FSG 2024 Writer's Fellowship 2024 Granum Foundation Prize Center for Book Arts 2024 Small Press Incubator McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Winter Residency Institute for Journalism & Natural Resources 2024 Critical Minerals Institute McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Autumn Workshop 2024-25 Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic Fellowship Portland Community College 2024 Carolyn Moore Writing Residency McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Fall Residency Sewanee 2024 Writers' Conference Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Mt. San Angelo Fall 2024 Residency MacDowell Fall 2024 to Winter 2025 Residency Adroit Journal 2023-24 Anthony Veasna So Scholars The de Groot Foundation 2024 COURAGE to WRITE Grant Princeton University Press 2024-25 Publishing Fellowship Stanford University 2024-2026 Wallace Stegner Fellowship Kenyon Review 2024 Developmental Editing Fellowship Epiphany 2024 Fresh Voices Fellowship Periplus Collective 2024 Fellowship McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Winter Workshop Witness 2024 Literary Award McCormack Writing Center (then Tin House) 2024 Summer Residency Latinx in Publishing 2024 Mentorship Program Curationist 2024 Critics of Color Fellowship Porter House Review 2023-2024 Editor's Prize Contest Guernica 2024 Poetry Fellowship Gulf Coast 2023 Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing
Withdrawn
Blair/Carolina Wren Press 2024 Bakwin Award for Full-Length Prose Porter House Review 2023-2024 Editor's Prize Contest 2024 Milkweed Fellowship, withdrawn in solidarity with Su Hwang's open letter about Milkweed Editions