I received my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore in 2007. After graduating, I took a teaching job in Kurdistan, Iraq, and while there I briefly worked as a journalist for a local English‑language newspaper. My experiences with the paper became the inspiration for my debut novel, There, which won Emergency Press’ 2011 International Book Award and was published by the Press in 2013.
Though I started my publishing career as a poet, over the years I’ve moved into hybrid forms of fiction and nonfiction. While I’m most drawn to prose, I maintain an allegiance to the lyrical and visual, placing high value on the way words sound and look on the page—and the white space that surrounds them. I’m inspired by place, history, culture, and social strata, and I’m especially interested in using written forms to explore the ephemeral and the many ways that living beings engage, and often fail to engage, with one another.
My poetry and prose have appeared in numerous publications, including PANK, The Baltimore Review, Poet Lore, Big Lucks, Smokelong Quarterly, Bayou Magazine, and Atticus Review. I am also the author of She Named Him Michael (a novella, Ink Press, 2017), Light There is to Find (a novel, Adelaide Books, 2018), and Some History of Our Animals (short stories, Cyberwit, 2020). My latest book, a hybrid memoir titled I Prefer the Praying Mantis, is forthcoming from Galileo Press and will be published in 2026.
I’ve been part of the Baltimore arts community since the early 2000s, and during that time I’ve curated and participated in exhibitions and readings of all shapes and sizes. I serve as the Acquisition Editor for Mason Jar Press and sit on the Board of Directors for Passager Books—two independent, Baltimore‑based publishers dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices. I’m also a contributing writer and editor for Iraq’s United Nations Industry Development Organization (UNIDO) programs.
In addition to my creative work, I am also a grant writer, copy editor, development editor, and fundraiser—roles I’ve carried across literary, nonprofit, and international development settings.