Welcome to my author website. You can read about my work as a novelist, essayist, and writer of short fiction and poetry.

My novel, The Dancing Girl and the Turtle, takes place in 1930s Shanghai. It’s the first in a quartet of novels all set in Shanghai.

My essays have been selected as a 2024 Notable by The Best American Essays, winner of the 2022 Kenyon Review Short Nonfiction Contest, and nominee for the Pushcart Prize.

Journals have nominated my short fiction for the Pushcart Prize and VERA. Long ago, I had some poetry published, too.

As of May 2023, the photo above shows all my work in print to date. It’s a harvest of which I’m tremendously proud. My heart pounds equally hard for publications that exist only on the internet. You can find the links to that online work in the navigation bar by genre.

On this author website, you can learn more about me and my writing. Have a look around. Read the backstory to my debut novel, my most recent book reviews or old blog posts from a seven month long trip around the world.

Starting November 2024, you can find me on Substack with new lyric essays, reviews of lyric essay collections, and publishing news at Swimming Upside Down.

Enjoy!