educator, writer, human
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writing

 

My nonfiction work can currently be read at Girls in Capes, for which I am the current LGBTQ Writer. Previously, I have worked with Autostraddle and Babble, and served as an editor for the Journal of Student Affairs. During my undergraduate studies at New York University, I pursued coursework in creative writing with an emphasis in fiction, and was selected by the Creative Writing Program to participate in both their Writers in New York summer intensive and a Master Class in Fiction. I invite you to view selections from my work at Girls in Capes below.

 
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Love Letter from a Girl: A Three-Part Series

"Girls liked boys, full stop. That was all I had ever known. Men could like other men too, that was called gay, but that was it. I would like boys too, I told myself, I just hadn’t met the right one yet. My mom had told me this was fine, but to get a ‘practice boyfriend’ in the meantime. I was 13.

But when I read … that anyone could like men and women — it just clicked. I liked boys because I had to, and that’s what all girls did, but I could also like women. And I did. I definitely did.

It was like learning that I, like most humans, have five senses. They’re senses we’ve been using our whole lives, but none of us were ever aware of them until someone told us that we see, taste, smell, touch, and hear. We had no idea that our entire perception of the world had been shaped by these senses, that they had been and would continue to determine the experiences that make up the entirety of our being, that they help make life worthwhile.

Imagine living without that." Read more (parts one; two; and three).

When (Film) Cells Divide: Unpacking an Inhuman Ending to Annihilation

"Just as the Shimmer’s refraction produces genetic (and dermic, in the case of one beautifully anachronistic ouroboros) mimicry, Garland’s crafted an ending that mimics genetics, too. A phenotype alone – what we’re seeing, in this case onscreen – does not a clear genotype – what’s actually happening – make. The interpretation of Lena surviving is human, a triumph over trauma that expresses not only human survival but also the human success to which we aspire."  Read more.

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Review from a Reader: The Drawing of the Three (Half Hours of My Life I'll Never Get Back)

"As a viewer, I sat down to watch The Dark Tower with high hopes: that it would be a successful companion piece to a book series I love, that it would make a 4,000+ page story more accessible to a wider audience, that it would be a herald for representation and inclusion in Hollywood. Instead, led astray by unimaginative writing and a disastrous adaptive choice, it collapsed."  Read more.


The Force Doth Hit the Snooze Button: A Review of "William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken"

"To disallow Rey from the deep thought and thematic exposés that are hallmarks of the Shakespearean monologue, particularly when every other main character delivers at least – if not more than – one, relegates her to deliver glorified stage directions and backstory that would otherwise not fit neatly into italicized stage directions or intricately planned pentameter. (While he may not have endowed Rey with a monologue worthy of her person, Doescher has painstakingly ensured that every one of BB-8’s chirps is written in accordance with both his rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter.)"  Read more.

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The L Could Be for Lara, Too: The Chance for a Queer Lara Croft

"Society is quick to follow the platitude 'assume straight until proven gay,' and continues because it’s a technique both tried and true. Since Lara’s genesis it’s something players have been able to safely assume. But now it’s 2013, Tomb Raider has been rebooted, some players say they’ve found that proof, and Crystal Dynamics is doing everything within their power to emphasize character development instead of cleavage."  Read more.