Latest Works

The snake got me on the ankle. I was alone in the bush, so the implications were clear. It was a mamba. He struck more than once, but I only saw him slithering away. The two essentials when faced with a snake bite were car keys and a cell phone. That’s what my instructor always said, but cell phones are really just distractions, so I was one short. Half wasn’t bad. I grabbed my keys and trudged through the grass to the Land Cruiser. Another crucial element of the snakebite

I wish I could see you tonight. The sky is cold and foggy like the bottom of my shower, and I miss you.  You were the prettiest girl I know. Eyes the color of soy milk and midnight hair braided with lucky charms. In a sea of red lips and curvy hips, you were a shooting star. Even your mom said so.  You were her treasure; if she could paint you in gold and display you in the town square she would have. She would pinch your cheeks for color and present you to all the hungry P

Saturday, February 6, 2016 The day had barely begun, and exhaustion had already defeated me. I hadn’t slept more than two hours in a row in weeks. My brain felt disconnected from my body, as if I had to remind myself how to walk, to blink, to breathe. I shuffled into the nursery wearing a nightshirt crusted with dried breast milk and the new slippers Peter gave me for Christmas—open-toe slip-ons with great poufs of pink faux fur that make no damn sense in a Winnipeg winter. 

It is the silence of Mars that makes it so alien. Not the stuffy recycled air, nor the reddish sky that tints everything in shades of...

I woke with two heads. It’s happened before, though long ago. I sat at the edge of my bed. A sad affair of sticks and wooden branches...

The tent flap opens and it’s her mother. Draped in elegant blue fabrics, adorned in white gold and garnets, her steps are tight and quick...

It was a nightmare.  My four-year-old self nervously paced the dining room floor. I frequently returned to the windowsill for another...

The setting sun shines without tiring, as if held in place by a giant hand. Cast at a low angle, pastel light gleams on the wet street,...

At her father’s funeral, Willa stood next to Aunt Clara, her back ramrod straight as she tried to think about anything but the casket in...

They said an angel lived in the belfry. It was a strange tale to those who hadn’t grown up with it. A rumor that drew either the most...

The doctor who admitted me didn't believe in ghosts. He believed in delusions, in misfiring synapses, in the chemical architecture of...

The policeman’s red and blue flashing lights signaled for them to pull over. Nikki, the driver, told Trini, who had drifted into the...

Before the first strike of the chisel, she was stone. Ten sweat-grimed men worked quickly cutting into the ribs of a mountain that held...

“Jimmy!” Grant whispered. He grabbed his sleeping brother’s shoulder and shook him. “Jimmy, wake up!” Jimmy groaned. He opened one eye...

I smelled him before I saw him, the pungent draft of maraschino and cigar smoke smacking sobriety into my rum-drunk skull. Three days on...

Kate looks nearly translucent under the stage’s spotlight. But she knows this. She doesn’t wear a getup like the others. No tattered...

Whenever our family got together, it was inevitable that we would sit and tell stories. We would gather in my grandparents’ adjoining...

To thee, an angel, called by the Lord unto the operation of this machine— In the days of Moses thou puttest the word of God into the...

The river doesn't care if you're ready. Mid-life catches you like an undertow, drags you into waters too deep for standing. One day...

My mind, memories, and soul came into being—like waking up, only somehow, I was already awake. My dim cabin aboard the Samsa was more...