About Me
I have always been excited about writing and have been doing it since the fourth grade, crafting horror stories based on my favorite PS1 games. There has not been a year that has passed since then that I havenβt written enough to fill a few composition books. In the spring of 2021, I decided to stick with a single project. Over seven months of combatting ADHD, whimsical depression, and debilitating self-deprecation, I managed to complete my first manuscript, The Life Of Alma.
It is unpublished.
Today, I strive to create honest and inclusive literary fiction that explores complex interpersonal relationships and the full spectrum of the human experience.
Currently
Writing
I am currently working on an ambitious, POV-swapping literary fiction novel set in Harlem ghettos in the early 90s following a sisterhood of young queer and transsexual foundlings. A stand-alone excerpt from this work will appear in West Branch Literary Magazine Spring/Summer Issue #105 under the title βHarlem, 1991β. Find a link here upon publication.
Preliminary Questions
Find some answers here so you donβt ask me in-person and I suddenly canβt use the English language.
What have you written?
A lot. You can find some of it over on Medium, Patreon, and this blog. Check above for updates on past work and current projects.
Why do you write?
I write because I love doing it and I think itβs what Iβm best at. Also, Iβve never been completely satisfied with the books that Iβve read. And this: βIf there is a book you want to read, and it is not yet written, then you must write it yourself.β β Toni Morrison
Are you gay?
No. I donβt fall neatly into any of the predetermined sexual orientation categories so just saying queer pretty much covers it for me.
Gender Identity?
While I have suffered with gender dysphoria as a child and teenager, those traits were shamed out of me. Today, I am begrudgingly confident and content as (mostly) a man.
Concerned about a cisgender male writing transgender character(s)?
I have responded to something like this before:Β
I can understand why you would be concerned. For instance, despite what I believe, I would be concerned about a white woman writing a story from the POV of a black man β but only because itβs in my purview. I would like you to know that I was careful, empathic, and passionate in creating and fleshing out these characters, and many of her (Almaβs) experiences and memories of identity struggles are plucked from my own life. I did not have the opportunity like so many others to explore my gender dysphoria in a way that would have been healthy or fair. These options were not available to me and have left a void inside of me that I can never fill. This cathartic experience gave me the opportunity to explore, deify, and raise up that part of me that was shamed away.
The artist in me is deeply offended, because I donβt want to live in a world where black people can only explore black characters, trans people can only explore trans characters, women can only explore female characters, and men can only explore male characters. I think that cheapens our empathic and artistic abilities as a species. But we are only human, and I can understand your trepidation with me stepping into a world that you see as your own.
Iβm not transgender, but I have intimate trans friends and have spent a long time in an ethnic trans and queer community in my home city of New York. I think that I was able to paint this world with tact and grace. But, someone else has to be the judge of that! Maybe you!