HONORS AND AWARDS

Remember This, debut novel, chosen for the 2022 Southern Festival of Books

Remember This - Finalist for the National Indie Excellence Awards in Literary Fiction

Remember This - Finalist (top 3) for Texas Institute of Letters Best First Book of Fiction Award, 2023

Other Deserts - Finalist for Big Moose Prize from Black Lawrence Press, 2019

Essay excerpt chosen as part of The Creative Process's exhibition for the European Consortium For Humanities Institutes and Centres, and projected in an art installation at University of Leuven in Belgium, 2018

2016 Best American Essays selection for "Notable Essay"

Pushcart Prize Nomination, Nonfiction, Grist Journal, 2015

Jentel Artists Residency (recommended by the Pushcart Foundation), 2014

Pushcart Prize Won; memoir (“Touch”) published in The Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: Best of the Small Presses 2014 Edition

Pushcart Prize Nomination, Nonfiction, The Pinch, 2013

Pushcart Prize Nomination, Nonfiction, The Pinch, 2012

Scholar at Norman Mailer Writer’s Colony – Nonfiction Workshop, Summer 2009

New York Fringe Festival – Musical Selected for Production in 2007 Fringe Festival

Santa Fe Writer’s Project – Winner in Writing Competition, 2002

Glimmer Train Press – Winner in Short-Short Story Award Competition, Fall 2001

Bronx Writer’s Center (through Bronx Council on the Arts) – Won Chapter One Fiction Competition, 2001

University of Texas – Guest Artist, Playwriting/Theater, Fall 1996

Pushcart Prize Nomination, Fiction, Glimmer Train, 1994

Glimmer Train Press – First Place Winner of Short-Story Award for New Writers, Fall 1994

MY INTERVIEWS

Bloom: I Couldn’t Give Up on It (interview about my debut novel, Remember This; with Ramona Reeves)

Deborah Kalb Books (interview about my debut novel, Remember This)

JMWW (interview about my debut novel, Remember This; with Jen Michalski)

Great Jones Street: Steve Adams - NaNoWriMo Interviews

Read to Write Stories: Interview with Steve Adams

INTERVIEWS WITH AUTHORS

New Flash Fiction Review - Interview with Thaisa Frank

PLAY PRODUCTIONS

New York City

“Cheez Doodles”

•  Perry Street Theater

•  Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art

•  Upstate Summer Rep Theater (Buffalo)

“Who Killed Rufus?”

•  Perry Street Theater

The Elvis Trinity (“Velvet Elvis,” “Love Child of the Gods,” “Elvis Was a Good Boy”)

•  Circle Rep Lab (“Velvet Elvis”)

The Needs of Children

•  The American Theatre of Actors

U.S. Auto

•  Manhattan Class Company (workshop)

•  Upstate Summer Rep Theater (workshop, Buffalo)

Slammer! (co-author; musical)

•  Selected for production at the New York Fringe Festival

Elsewhere

Branson or Bust (co-author; musical)

  • Opened The University of Texas’ Fall 1996 mainstage season (premiere) - “Cheez Doodles”

“Cheez Doodles”

  • Chameleon’s, Austin, Texas

  • University of Texas at Arlington

  • Twilight Theater Productions, Kenlake KY - “Family Portrait”

  • Shoestring Theater, University of Texas at Austin

  • University of Texas at Arlington

Passengers

  • Shoestring Theater, University of Texas at Austin

  • Pecan Street Theater, Austin, Texas

Moves

  • Shoestring Theater, University of Texas at Austin

The Needs of Children

  • Shoestring Theater, University of Texas at Austin

“Velvet Elvis” (part 1 of The Elvis Trinity)

  • L.A. Rep Company (workshop)

EDUCATION

The University of Texas at Austin, B.A. in Theatre

New School University, MFA in Creative Writing

PUBLISHED WORKS

Novels

  • Remember This - University of Wisconsin Press, October 2022

Creative Nonfiction/Memoir

  • “A Wrinkle in Space” - Notre Dame Magazine - Spring 2022

  • “Sharon Tate Has Always Haunted My Dreams” - Bull – January 2020

  • “Bob the Diviner” -  Under the Sun – May 2019

  • “Beautiful Living Things: A Farewell to Glimmer Train” - The Millions – November 2018

  • "Give Me a Hug" -  Jellyfish Review – March 2018

  • "Gifts Opened Later" - Notre Dame Magazine – Winter 2016

  • “Why You Move to New York, v. mid-80s” - New Flash Fiction Review – 2016
    (Excerpt included in art installation by The Creative Process at University of Leuven in Belgium for the European Consortium For Humanities Institutes and Centres)

  • “Border Crossing" - Grist: The Journal for Writers – 2015 (Selected by the 2016 Best American Essays as "Notable Essay")

  • "Waiting Till the Wait Is Over” - Notre Dame Magazine – Summer 2016

  • "Rob Lowe in Flight” - Bull: Men’s Fiction – 2015

  • "All Glory to God" - St. Katherine Review – Winter 2014

  • “Ghosts of New York” - The Pinch – Spring 2013

  • “Touch” - The Pinch – Winter 2012
    Reprinted in:

    • The Pushcart Prize XXXVIII: Best of the Small Presses 2014 Edition

    • The Good Men Project, March 2014

    • Love Stories for Turbulent Times: Loving Through the Apocalypse, Dec. 2017 (Special Pushcart curated anthology)

  • “Balloons” - Willow Springs – Winter 2012

Craft/Process Essays

  • "Money is Random" - Talking Writing – September 2014

  • “Wish I Could Quit You” - Talking Writing – January 2014

  • “Your Sanctuary” - Glimmer Train Bulletin – January 2012

Writing Column (ongoing, focusing on craft and process)

  • "About Your Writing" at JMWW

Short Stories

  • “The Language of Flowers” - Great Jones Street – February 2017

  • “Sweet fruit of her soul and it is his” - Quarterly West – Spring 2000

  • “The Chosen” - The Missouri Review – Spring 1999

  • “Keeper” - Glimmer Train Press – Fall 1998
    Reprinted in:

    • Redux: A Literary Journal – May 2013

    • Great Jones Street – 2016

    • (Known academic use of text – University of Minnesota, Ethics in Literature class, 2000; cited in Beyond the Writers’ Workshop, by Carol Bly, 2001)

  • “I Think of Whores as Knife Edges” - Georgetown Review – Spring 1997

  • “Redeemer” - Chicago Review – Spring 1995

  • “The Fish” - Glimmer Train Press – Fall 1994
    Reprinted in:

    • Literary Cavalcade (Scholastic Inc.) – April 1995

    • Sudden Fiction (Continued) (Norton) – 1996

    • The Drum (audio journal) – 2013

    • Great Jones Street – 2016

    • (Total readership of story:  >250,000.  Known academic use of text in creative writing classes – UNC Greensboro, Oakland Community College [2002], University of Minnesota [2003])

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Contributing Editor (ongoing) – The Pushcart Prize Anthology. (Nominated stories, “A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness” by Jai Chakrabarti included in the 2018 Pushcart Anthology, and “Sundays” by Emma Copley Eisenberg included in the 2019 Pushcart Anthology.)

Panelist for Writer's League of Texas's Third Thursday at BookPeople in Austin:
"When Less is More: Writing Short Stories, Essays, and Flash Fiction," Spring 2015

Panelist at Texas Association of Creative Writing Teacher Conference, Fall 2012

Guest lectured in New York University class, Spring 2007

Organized and produced a reading series for Glimmer Train Press, Brooklyn, 2004

Juror for CUNY (City University of New York) grant application

Juror for Bronx Writer’s Center’s Chapter One Fiction Competition

Writing coach and writing seminar presenter (ongoing)

Member of the Authors Guild