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Most recent and forthcoming publications: Briefly Knocked Unconscious by a Low Flying Duck includes "Why I Hate Strawberries" with other 2nd Story favorites, edited by Megan Stielstra -- available now Windy City Queer includes "Darla Speeding" with other works by Chicago best queer writers, edited by Kathie Bergquist -- available now Is Greater Than Digital Omnibus containing "Sergei the Creeple" among other best of IsGreaterThan.net selections chosen by editor Paul M. Davis. |
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Artist's Statement: I believe one of the aims of art is to disturb, to stop people in their grooves long enough to laugh or get pissed or try on another point of view. I am drawn to the wisdom of the outsider character, who has an idea of what the standard rules are, but who chooses to take them with a salt lick. I'm interested in riding the line between the sacred and the profane, in erasing the artifice of mindspiritbody division. Much of my writing offers sex, some in a distinctly non-erotic way, because sex is rarely "just sex"--it is frequently about power, longing, comfort, relationship. While I recognize a broad spectrum of sexualities and relationships, the comparison/contrast of conscious sadomasochism (among leatherfolk, for instance) with the psychotic subconscious roles played out by so-called "normal" people is of great fascination to me in particular. When I entered the Chicago Eagle (a leather bar) in the mid-1990s, it was a kind of homecoming--a quarter of the world that made sense to me in a way that Methodist church and Catholic high school and dysfunctional family never did. The notion of consent pervaded everything and I became interested in what we consent to on a daily basis, without ever realizing there are alternatives.
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Bio: I grew up in the river valleys of Illinois, and now live in Chicago with the love of my life, a sweet and intense ten-year old, and two cats. I earned a B.A. in English Rhetoric at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago. My novel, Hades' Son (formerly titled These Mundane Freaks), was a Top-Three finalist in the 2008 Project: Queer Lit competition (excerpts appear in past issues of Blithe House Quarterly, VelvetMafia , and Hair Trigger). My novella, Asylum 9-1-1, was a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and I've also been a top-ten finalist in the Many Mountains Moving Flash Fiction Contest. I've additional stories published or forthcoming in many journals, including:
My poetry, articles, and essays have appeared in The Windy City Times Pride Literary Supplement, PoeticVoices.com, Sandmutopia Guardian, and the Third Side Press anthology, The Woman-Centered Economy. I am a Certified Story Workshop(R) Director and a former Artist-in-Residence at Columbia College. (View CV.) I'm delighted to be a 2nd Story company member. My other interests include
crow-watching, mythology, folklore, and magick.
I've also got a page at
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Check it out: A podcast performance of "Granny's Leathers."
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