SHORT FICTION
- “Rooms Have Their Ways,” a candlelit story, No Contact, Autumn 2021
- “Hold Your Breath,” a mermaid story, Uncharted Magazine, Autumn 2021
- Pushcart Prize Nom
- “Naked At Last,” a breakup story, HAD, Autumn 2021
- “The Night He Said I Love You,” a fickle god story, CRAFT Literary, Summer 2021
- From the same universe as “The Angel Finger,” also with CRAFT
Shelly died first. Some combination of tuberculosis and an ancient family curse. Then her ghost killed Dan, strangled him with his own bed-curtains. They both agreed to leave Good Boy alive—the game is Ghost Children, not Ghost Dogs.
— “The Night He Said I Love You”
- “Snap of a Twig,” a true-in-all-the-ways-that-matter story, JMWW, Summer 2021
- “Bone Deep,” three tattoo stories (two in print, issue 42), Passages North, Spring 2021
- Part of The Body Ruiner-inspired series
- The tattoos in question: “Winter Trees,” “Why She Learned to Play Guitar,” & “Bone Deep“
- Best Microfiction Nom
- “Another Morning,” an eerie story, Fractured Lit, Winter 2020
- “The Hidden People,” a ghost story, CutBank Magazine, Winter 2020
- Winner of the 2020 Montana Prize in Fiction, selected by Andrew Sean Greer
A strange man driving them around a strange country, no one expecting to see or hear from them for days? What could go wrong?
— “The Hidden People”
- “Knife House,” a sharp story, HAD, Autumn 2020
- Part of The Body Ruiner-inspired series (top-center image from this collage)
- “The Angel Finger,” an upsetting story, CRAFT Literary, Autumn 2020
- Finalist for the 2020 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize judged by Alexander Chee
Most nights, Morgan lies awake thinking about cutting off her sister’s finger. The extra one on Angela’s left hand, the one she calls her angel finger.
— “The Angel Finger
- “The Cat with the Face,” an odd story, Tiny Molecules, Summer 2020
- Part of The Body Ruiner-inspired series (the tattoo in question)
- Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist, 2021
- “When the Horse Came to the Open House,” a witchy story, Zooscape Zine, Summer 2020
- “A First Kiss,” a swept-away story, trampset, Spring 2020
- Part of The Body Ruiner-inspired series (the tattoo in question)
- “The Embrace,” a devilish story, Flash Dancers: Largehearted Boy, Spring 2020
- Paired with Laura Marling’s song “Devil’s Resting Place“
- “The Ghost Light,” a theater story, Bad Pony (Issue 6), Autumn 2019
- “Horse Girl,” a yearning story, Joyland Magazine, Autumn 2019
- audio performance available at Mr. Bear’s Violet Hour Saloon
Esme lasts two more days before finally admitting it. She’s not six anymore, she has a fucking cellphone, a computer, but no, sure, this knocking thing. She’ll give it a go. They’ll both be poltergeists tonight.
— “Horse Girl”
- “It’s Only a House,” a haunted house story, Wigleaf, Autumn 2019
- “The Sweethearts,” a café story, Pidgeonholes, Summer 2019
- “The Daddy Thing,” a vampire story, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Winter 2019
- one of Electric Literature’s 32 most-read stories of the decade!
- selected as a Longform Fiction Pick of the Week
- audio performance available at Mr. Bear’s Violet Hour Saloon
- story discussion & author interview by Kevin Vibert via video game Spelunky 2!
Juana woke up to find her hair had come alive on her pillow. It might’ve startled her if not for the elderly voice, so small and papery, “Don’t scream, girl, whatever you do. My ears can’t take it.” It almost sounded like her abuelita’s voice. Except, of course, not dead.
— “The Daddy Thing”
- “To Unweave a Rainbow,” a pirate story, MLS Journal, Summer 2018
- also check out my Sidebar podcast interview with MLS’s fiction editor Patrick Henry
- Pushcart Prize Nom
- “The Hunted,” a sleepover story, The Cincinnati Review, Summer 2018
- also check out The Wilds’s review of this story
- Best Small Fictions Nom & Best of the Net Nom
They chucked rocks into the black water, feigning the occasional chill. They whispered What was that? as if they’d heard something. Their thoughts slithered as they looked for ways to frighten each other, so many glinting silverfish wriggling around the dark folds of their brains.
— “The Hunted”
- “Why the Moon Wanes,” a cowgirl story, Necessary Fiction, Summer 2018
- Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist, 2019
- “The Cover-up,” a sexy story, SmokeLong Quarterly (Smokey Flash Contest finalist), Summer 2018
- “Quietly Gigantic,” an apocalypse story, Strange Horizons, Summer 2018
- also check out Quick Sip’s review of this story
My first night alone in Raimy’s hipster dream home. It isn’t eerie at all. I’m not suddenly afraid of the dark just because it’s hanging around in someone else’s rooms. I’ve already made my inventory of everything that’s normal and typical and boring. I checked all the closets, no roaches or monsters to be seen. I put my dishes away in the washer instead of leaving them out in the sink. I checked every lock. I checked every faucet. Normal. It’s all normal.
— “Quietly Gigantic”
- “It’s Shaped Like a Grin, They Say,” a haunted bridge story, CHEAP POP, Spring 2018
- Selected for Best Micro Fiction 2019 anthology
- “The Autumn Fuss,” a swan story, The Café Irreal, Winter/Spring 2018
- “The Joke,” a lonely story, matchbook, Winter/Spring 2018
- Pushcart Prize Nom & Selected for Best Small Fictions 2019 anthology
I’m alone in my apartment but I have the TV on so it sounds like a bunch of people are in here talking. This way people in the hall won’t walk by and think that I’m alone. I can hear the neighbors laughing through the wall. Is it me? Are they laughing at me?
— “The Joke”
- “Out from Behind a Rock,” a rural story, Cotton Xenomorph, Winter 2017
- “The Bomb,” a tender story, Jellyfish Review, Winter 2017
- “Late at Night, After He’s Fallen Asleep,” a love story, Paper Darts, Autumn 2017
The worms—it’s complicated. I don’t want to put that pressure on my lover, to become something he talks to his therapist about. But I feel them. The squirming, clammy draw of these things. The kind of feeling that makes you tear your fingernails. The kind that makes you send one too many text messages.
— “Late at Night, After He’s Fallen Asleep”
- “Pulling Out,” a face-in-the-window story, Split Lip Magazine, Autumn 2017
- “The Devil and the Doorknob,” a secret passageway story, 7×7, Autumn 2017
- in collaboration with visual artist Jenna Bao
- “The Feast,” a virgin sacrifice story, Carve Magazine, Winter 2017
- Pushcart Prize Nom
- “The Feast,” audio reprint, PodCastle, performed by Jen Albert, Autumn 2019
We took Emmaline on what promised to be a particularly stormy night. It wasn’t hard to do, especially since all the police and alarm company people were right there in the mob with us. Her mother, Rebecca, had to be restrained by five different people; the sheriff even had to lock her in a holding cell to keep her secured.
— “The Feast”