Worlds I'm Creating

At first, 17-year-old Vera only knows that something strange is going on at Briar Glen Nursing Home in her Virginia town. That’s where she visits her favorite person in the universe, her great-great aunt (aka GGA Zanzan, one of the last living survivors of the Armenian genocide). Soon Vera begins to suspect that Briar Glen’s residents are being used as human guinea pigs. Vera and her unlikely allies—including a handsome underage CNA who’s a refugee from North Korea, an amputee basketball teammate, and an agoraphobic resident of the Home—try to rescue GGA Zanzan before she dies. Vera realizes that whatever is happening at Briar Glen is bigger than her own family’s tragedy: that in fact, it may affect everyone in the mortal world.

YA Fantasy Novel
125K words complete.
Currently seeking representation.
(Cover image by Alfio Giuffrida “Notifiche exp5”)

Jubilation A Novel

Adult Literary Novel
In Progress

It's 1918 in the town of Jubilation, Utah, where the daily train arrives with two brothers aboard, one dead from influenza, and the other mostly dead. Danner Berg's survival is a miracle, but one that comes with a world of heartache . . . and a woman who captures his heart against the whole world's wishes.

In the Outside

A Novel

Worlds I've Shared with Readers

"Obbligato" follows a young woman's journey from her Idaho farm to life as a virtuoso with the Chicago Symphony.

My essay in this anthology explores the ways my own inheritance intersects with the work and vision of the great artist, Minerva Teichert.

Anthologized Work

Some Publications

"All the Things the World is Doing: Minerva Teichert and Humanity, History, and Hope," Blossom as a Cliff Rose, anthology edited by Karin Anderson and Danielle Beazer Dubrasky, 125-140, Salt Lake City, Utah: Torrey House Press, 2021.

“Tree Thoughts at Thirty-Thousand Feet,” “Dog Hair,” “Bears and Beetles,” Poetry. Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review, 7, no. 1, (Winter 2019): 106, 107.
http://fredericksburgwriters.com/

“Just Telling It Like It Is,” “A Day in the Life of Jesus,” “Coals,” Poetry. Irreantum, 14, no. 1, (2012): 74-78. Third Place in annual poetry contest.
http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/aml-publications-documents/irreantum/irreantum-volume-14-no-1-2012/

“A Confession,” Fiction. Irreantum,12, no. 1, (2010): 21-37. First Place in annual fiction contest.
http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/aml-publications-documents/irreantum/irreantum-volume-12-no-1-springsummer-2010/

“Obbligato,” Fiction. Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction, anthology edited by Angela Hallstrom, 21-35, Provo, Utah: Zarahemla Books, 2010.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984360301/ref=as_li_tlie=UTF8&tag=zarahbooks-20&camp=1789&creative=
9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0984360301&linkId=
9679e47cdf93a425ac26b5dbb5bb3aed

“Snuffing the Flame: The Moral Implications of Stereotype,” Essay. The Writer’s Chronicle, (October/November 2008).

“My Mother’s Kitchen” (later renamed “Obbligato”), Fiction. Selected as finalist in Hunger Mountain fiction contest judged by Wally Lamb (She’s Come Undone), 2007.

“Return to the Chilean Homestead,” Poetry. Exponent II, 27, no. 4, (2005): 25-25.
https://archive.org/details/exponentii274arli/page/24

“It’s Not Just About Love: Five bookstore owners on the risks and rewards of running an independent bookstore,” Article. Publisher's Weekly, 250, no. 27, (July 7, 2003).
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20030707/28576-it-s-not-just-about-love.html/

“Life’s Hand, Life’s Foot,” Fiction. Timber Creek Review, (Fall 1998): 60-68.

“Bathing Mother,” Fiction. The Carolina Quarterly, 48, no. 2, (Winter 1996): 7-16. Won the Charles B. Wood award for distinguished writing, and best story of the year.

“Plantains,” Essay. Wasatch Review International, 3, no. 1, (1994): 57-75.

“When This War Is Over,” Essay. Brick Magazine, (1993): 58-62.
https://brickmag.com/

“Trains,” “Calf Joy,” Poetry. Wasatch Review International, 1, no. 2, (1992): 43-45.

“Pure, Thin Bones,” Fiction. Dialogue, 22 no. 4, (Winter 1989): 122-130.

“Angelica” and “Sara” Poetry. Inscape, (Fall 1986): 68, 69.

My Photographs

And sometimes the world speaks for itself.

Gallery

I don't have a fancy camera, but I love
trying to capture what I see.