“The birds were the worst. March and the migration to Valdez in full swing. If asked, those of us who first came to Alaska to study bird patterns, we could name all the variations of murres and guillemots and murrelets. The gulls and kitties, auks and dovekies. If asked, those of us who were fishermen said the birds were brown and brown and brown.”

— excerpt from “Spillionaires,” Territory (Summer 2020)

“Beak against glass. Don’t forget about us, first we whispered. Whispering mistaken for wind. A breeze at first. Planetary, westerlies and easterlies, periodic, trade. These are too many names for the same sort of riot.”

— excerpt from “Chronology,” PANK (Issue 15)

“Not until there’s white jizz covering our rain gear and eggs spilt all over deck. Not until late August. Not until we’ve all lost our minds, ‘til we’ve all got glazed eyes—’til we’d do anything just to feel something, the end coming slow and fast at the same time. We can’t look at each other in August because we’re wet with longing for land and the smell of undergrowth. We won’t look and we won’t go home yet. We won’t go home—not until we’re numb and drunk and rich.”

— excerpt from “How the Bloodline Weaves the Spine,” Fourth River (Feb. 2020)

“I’ll tell you how we conceived him, he says when the past seems to get away from him. He tells it over and over again like he’s trying to figure out where I really came from. How I happened. He’s read up on all the research. Found proof that it’s nothing he did wrong. There was a storm, he always starts. His eyes get that crazy shine.”

— excerpt from “So He Doesn’t Forget that He Loves Me,” Litro (Feb. 2014)

“Dad used to pay us $5 a squirrel but Nick was the only one who could shoot to kill. He’d pretend not to notice me hiding underneath the porch when Nick would pull the trigger on the B.B., and I’d cringe as the squirrel inevitably twitched in reflex. We had matching jackets, Nick and I, dark blue, it’d be easy to get us mixed up. I knew Dad didn’t though.”

— excerpt from “An Absolute Hog,” The Missing Slate (July 2013)

Awards and Fellowships:

Mineral School June Dodge Fellow, 2023
Hedgebrook Writer’s Residency, March 2021
Hugo House Fellowship, 2019-2020
Seventh Wave Residency (Canceled), 2020
David Guterson Award, University of Washington, 2019
Eugene Van Buren Award, University of Washington, 2019, 2018