/about
I write fiction and creative nonfiction, and I'm particularly interested in game writing and digital storytelling. I love thinking about the ways that technology is influencing the ways that we think about narrative and the new kinds of stories we can tell. Right now, I'm working on a speculative novel about video games and a short story collection about technology. I'm also a co-author for Story Mode: Writing Narrative Video Games, a textbook about game writing, which is forthcoming from Bloomsbury.
I spent most of my childhood in West Germany, where I spent hours reading in the library on the army base where my mother worked. The books I read never quite seemed to explain the reality of my experiences, and I grew up using writing as a way of trying to make sense of the people and places around me and to try to tell those stories.
My writing has appeared in Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, Willow Springs, The Writer's Chronicle, New Ohio Review, Blackbird, and other journals. Some of the awards I have received include a Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, a University of New Orleans Writing Award for Study Abroad, and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
I enjoy reading all kinds of fiction and creative nonfiction, and some of my favorite contemporary authors are N.K. Jemisin, Melissa Febos, Kelly Link, Tamsyn Muir, Carmen Maria Machado, and others. If you’re interested in reading the work of some of the amazing new and emerging writers I admire, you can find links to their works here.
I've loved video games ever since my dad brought home an Atari when I was a kid. Some of my favorite narrative video games are Firewatch, Life is Strange, What Remains of Edith Finch, Sayonara Wild Hearts, 80 Days, Stray, and others. I also enjoy playing World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, as well as a variety of tabletop role-playing and board games. I’m always excited to learn about new games and digital stories, so if you have suggestions or recommendations, send me a message!
Currently, I'm an Assistant Professor of English and the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, where I also co-direct the Center for Games and Interactive Media. I'm also an editor for the Digital, Multimodal, and Multimedia section of the Journal of Creative Writing Studies.
When I’m not working, I love listening to music, running, and spending time with my partner, Tony, our cats, Charlie and Wendell, and our tiny dog, Ari.
