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Here’s a dramatic monologue. Or a lyrical essay. Or some attempt at channeling the 12-year-old girl I used to be. Yes, it’s true. It’s nonfiction. Here goes: Undeveloped Is there a [...]

One beer and I’m buzzed and thinking about karate. What gives? It’s late, the night sky as thick as molasses up here on Fork Mountain, clouds suffocating the stars and all the whispers of winter [...]

Ok. I’ve never written about anything like this before–but here’s an excerpt from a story I’m working on. All you need to know is that the main character is Jet, a man in [...]

Here is what I am doing: 1) Re-envisioning nonfiction memoir vignettes from my first year in the MFA in order to prepare them for my thesis. So far, this is my process: I read the old version out [...]

After kids’ class I bow off of the floor mats and start putting on layers for my run between classes. But it’s a cold, blustery night and snow has been falling all day. Hanshi peeks his head [...]

“Don’t be self conscious in this class,” Hanshi says. “You’re all already wearing pajamas, so what is there to worry about? Seriously folks, look at us. We could be at a pajama party. There’s [...]

I mope. I overeat. I lay facedown on the countertop for twenty-two minutes, each of which I count methodically. I watch Back to the Future II to get out of my head and there is something in that [...]

Besides my parents and my fellow karateka, I have not seen other people since I arrived back in NC at 3 a.m. on the 18th. I will not see other humans until the night of the 22nd, when I go to [...]

In the morning, I have clarity. What I could have written about last night was not all the things Hanshi said that I could not remember, but rather, the moment that I sparred with one of the new [...]

It’s been almost a month since I had class due to the MFA residency, but today I woke up early and did yoga before heading down the snowy driveway and into town for kids’ class at the dojo. I [...]