EDUCATION

PhD

University of Southern California, Literature and Creative Writing, August 2021

Visual Studies Graduate Certificate

Dissertation: “Petroleum in Five Acts: Slow Violence Along the Mississippi River and the Niger River”

Committee: Aimee Bender (Chair), Dana Johnson, and Manuel Pastor

MFA

Johns Hopkins University, The Writing Seminars, May 2013

Thesis: “Approaching South” 

Committee: Jean McGarry and Alice McDermott

BA

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, English Literature, May 2009     

Concentration in Creative Writing

Double Minor in French and Francophone Studies & Film Studies    

magna cum laude graduate

PUBLICATIONS

Novel

Pearce Oysters. Zibby Books. Forthcoming, summer 2024.

Short Fiction

“Alligator.” Gulf Coast. September 2021. Web.

“The New River.” Harpur Palate, 16.1 (2017): 125-133.

“Approaching South.” Harvard Review. March 2016. Web.

“Seeking Arrangement.” DIAGRAM, Jan. 2017. Web.

“On Documentation.” The Rumpus. May 2016. Web

“The Seduction of Angelito.” Tin House’s Flash Fridays Series, June 2014. Web.

“Something Irrevocable.” Narrative Magazine. Narrative Online Magazine, April 2014. Web.

Finalist in Narrative Magazine’s Winter Short Story Contest

 “Flares of Little Warning.” Narrative Magazine. Narrative Online Magazine, March 2012. Web.

            Selected as “Story of the Week” Winner, Narrative Magazine

“A Form of Waiting.” Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, 50 (2012): 163-172.

            Columbia Journal’s 50th Issue Fiction Contest Winner, Selected by Judge Dinaw Mengestu

 

Scholarly

“Polluted Purifiers: An Oral History of Southeast Louisiana’s Oyster Farmers in the Wake of the    

    Deepwater Horizon Environmental Disaster.” Baylor Institute for Oral History, July 2017. Web.

 

Reviews & Interviews

“On Being the Protagonist of an Environmental Justice Documentary.” Review of Alexander

     Glustrom’s Mossville: When Great Trees Fall. Entropy. March 2020. Web.

“De-Melanization Procedure: A Conversation with Maurice Carlos Ruffin.” The Los Angeles

    Review of Books, May 2019. Web.

“Look at Your Game, Girl.” Review of Emma Cline’s The Girls. The Los Angeles Review of Books. June

     2016. Web.

"Grief and Transformation." Review of Paul Lisicky’s The Narrow Door. The Los Angeles Review of Books,

     Feb. 2016. Web.

SCHOLARLY AWARDS

Provost Doctoral Fellowship, University of Southern California (2014-2021)

Middleton Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Southern California (2020-2021)

Global South Research Grant, Tulane University (Summer 2020)

Visual Studies Summer Research Grant, University of Southern California (Summer 2020)

Research Enhancement Year-long Fellowship, The Graduate School, University of Southern California (2019-2020)

Graduate School Research and Writing Grant, University of Southern California (Summer 2019 and 2020)

Department of English Conference Travel Award, University of Southern California (2018)

Dornsife Graduate School Research Grant, University of Southern California (2016)

Graduate School Travel/Research Award, University of Southern California (2016)

Charlton Oral History Grant, Baylor University’s Institute of Oral History (2015)

Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society (2009)

 

WRITING AWARDS

Disquiet Literary Prize, Shortlist (2019)

Pleiades’ R.M. Kinder Award in Realistic Fiction, Finalist (2016)

Tennessee Williams Fellow, Sewanee Writers’ Conference (2016)

Edward W. Moses Graduate Creative Writing Competition, Second Place (2016 and 2015)

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Residency Fellowship (2015)

Mildred Fox Hansen Grant for Women Writers, University of Southern California (2015)

Selected as “Story of the Week” Winner, Narrative Magazine (2014 and 2012)

Featured as a noteworthy first-time author on Narrative Magazine’s “Narrative Firsts” (2013)

Finalist in Narrative Magazine’s Winter Short Story Contest (2013)

Finalist in Narrative Magazine’s “Top Writers Under 30,” 30 Below Contest (2013 and 2011)

Summer Literary Seminars, Vilnius, Lithuania, Fellowship (2012)

Columbia Journal’s 50th Issue Fiction Contest Winner, Selected by Judge Dinaw Mengestu (2012)

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

The Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, New York 2019

The Banff Centre for Creative Arts with scholarship, Banff, Canada 2018

Virginia Center for Creative Arts with fellowship, Amherst, Virginia 2016

  

CONFERENCES

“The Toxic Sublime in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor: The Photography of Richard Misrach.” 6th International Congress on Visual Culture. Université Paris Diderot,

Paris, France. (April 2020). (Virtual/COVID-19)

“Polluted Purifiers: An Oral History of Southeast Louisiana’s Oyster Farmers in the Wake of the Deepwater Horizon Environmental Disaster.” Oral History and

Climate Change Panel. Oral History Association Annual Conference. Montreal, Canada. (2018)

  

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

University of Southern California, 2015 - 2021

Department of English

Teaching Assistant

  • Introduction to the Genre of Poetry (Spring 2019)

Taught a companion literature and creative writing course on the American Elegy associated with Prof. Freeman’s lectures

  • Introduction to the Genre of Fiction (Fall 2018)

Taught a companion literature and creative writing course on Fabulist Short Fiction associated with Prof. Freeman’s lectures

  •  Los Angeles: The City, The Movie, The Novel with Prof. Thomas Gustafson (Summer 2017)

 

The Writing Program

Lecturer

  •   Writing and Critical Reasoning: an expository writing course (Writing 150)

                   Writing 150: Technology and Social Change (2016-2017)

         Writing 150: Sustainability (2015-2016)

 

Johns Hopkins University, August 2011-July 2014  

Full Teaching Assistantship (2011-2013)

Instructor

  • Steal This Book: on the intersection of art and activism (Summer 2014)

            From Jacques Prévert to Spike Lee

  • Introduction to Fiction and Poetry II (Spring 2014)

  • Introduction to Fiction and Poetry II (Fall 2013)

  • Introduction to Fiction and Poetry I (Spring 2013)

  • Writing the Personal and the Political: on integrating politics into creative writing (Winter 2012)

            From Gwendolyn Brooks to Leslie Marmon Silko

  • Introduction to Fiction and Poetry I (Fall 2012)

  • Introduction to Fiction and Poetry I (Spring 2012)

  • Introduction to Fiction and Poetry I (Fall 2011)

 

Mentor and Tutor, WriteGirl, Los Angeles, CA (May 2020-Present)

Mentor to a high school girl in Los Angeles through COVID-19 pandemic with weekly, virtual creative writing sessions

 

Tutor, 826LA East Tutoring Center, Los Angeles, CA (September 2018-2019)

Aided middle and high school students with writing

 

Writing Instructor, Writing Outside the Fence, Baltimore, MD (July 2012 & 2013)

            Lead a multi-genre, four-week writing workshop for ex-offenders in the Baltimore area

 

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Fiction Editor, Gold Line Press (June 2020-May 2021 & September 2015-May 2016)

Co-founder and co-coordinator, Hey You, Come Back!: A Reading Series in Baltimore, MD (July 2013-July 2014)

            Organized and hosted a monthly reading series featuring local authors in downtown Baltimore

Contest Reader, NPR’s All Things Considered, Three-Minute Fiction Contest (May 2013)

Writing Tutor, JHU Institute for Policy Studies, Baltimore, MD (2011-2014)

            Coached ESL Masters in Public Policy Candidates in English Grammar and Academic Writing

Co-coordinator, Tudor and Stuart Graduate Reading Series, Baltimore, MD (January-May 2012)

            Organized the weekly readings schedule, publicized event, and introduced fiction writers

Contest Judge, Tennessee Williams Literary Festival One-Act Play Contest (March 2011)

Editorial Associate, Bayou Magazine (2010)