who am i?
i was born on a weird little island in the california bay area four months before 9/11. i lived there or basically lived there my whole life up until two years ago. as a child, i was a compulsive liar. i was constantly coming up with fantastical stories--many of which were so fantastical that even as a child i was shocked adults believe them. maybe if i had been encouraged to be a writer then i would've gotten in less trouble.
instead i bounced around pursuits, creative or otherwise, seeing what stuck. i fell in love with film at an early age and figured i'd go into production, and started at uc berkeley with that in mind. after a few bad set experiences i switched into the academic track and never looked back. at this time i was writing, mostly poetry with the supervision of my high school creative writing teacher. without her i would not be where i am today and likely would not be here at all. she took me to my first public readings at the old, peeling-yellow community center. me and my contemporaries were always the youngest attendees by decades. picture a bunch of awkward, varyingly-closeted teens shuffling from their folding chairs to read stilted poems about sex and suicide, from small windows of personal experience, to the nicest eighty-year olds on earth. i miss those wednesday nights more than anything.
in spring semester of 2023 i got SERIOUS ABOUT WRITING FICTION. i had just broken my brain doing graduate school applications and, until i got into my masters program in los angeles, things were not looking good. i needed to do ANYTHING, and i had all this stuff floating around in my head with nowhere to go and it was making me sick. i don't feel like it comes out of sickness anymore. i feel better now.
that's it really. i wish i could say i live in los angeles with my partner and our fat little golden retriever puppy, but she's in new jersey and our fat little golden retriever puppy hasn't been born yet. i'm still in school and i wish i could be there forever. i like los angeles a lot and i'm happy i get to stay and keep writing in this awesome ugly ass city.