Pittsburgh: A Love Story

new publication with press pause press!

Read my latest essay in Volume 7 of Press II Press. I’d like to think it’s about home, particularly the making of one - the transition from when the new becomes increasingly familiar.

The parking lot is holy ground. Cracks snake sinuously, the blacktop weathered and gravelly. Painted white lines every nine feet. Luke Bryant plays from tinny truck radios. Concrete overpasses cut across the blue sky and their shadows offer the only forgiveness from September heat. Ahead of me, a row of portable toilets. There is no line but, instead, a crowd with a dubious ranking system. I wait until I gingerly pry open the plastic door with one finger, take a breath and pee as fast as I possibly can.

About Press Pause Press: Their mission of slowing down, of moving away from connected online spaces into our outdated clunky “real world” resonates with me. My relationship with social media, with screens, is something I’m always thinking about (and even writing to you about it, now, is ironic to me — how we are connected through this screen, and it brings me joy).

Pre-order a print copy of Volume 7! I’m honored to share my work with this cohort of talented writers and artists.

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call for submissions! 6 words to describe your 2022

send me 6 words to describe your year. it could be a sentence, a fragment, a list, an inside joke. you can send me one entry, you can send me a dozen. ask your family. ask your friends. ask your barista. email me, text me, leave a comment, write me a postcard. the collection will be published in an upcoming LR.