Essays
“Kings and Not Girls” (A Visual Essay) in Just Femme and Dandy
“All there of us wanted a taste, just to see if it was any different now that we were kings, and not girls.”
"My 12-year-old trans friend came to my drag pageant. But for her, gender is not a costume” in LA Times
“About a month ago, I was crowned the first Mx. Pride St. Louis, winning my first title in drag. The most memorable part of this experience for me was seeing Q., a 12-year-old trans girl in the audience.”
“My Journey to Becoming St. Louis’s First Mx. Pride” in OutinSTL
“Until I competed in my first pride pageant on May 28 at River City Casino, all I really knew about pageants came from watching the iconic 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine and occasionally mining YouTube for the worst beauty pageant responses to the on-stage Q&A.”
“This Is What It Feels Like To Be a Drag King In This Increasingly Dangerous Moment” in HuffPost
“Someone called my home bar and said he was planning to shoot up the place. ... In response to the death threat, my friend Rocky said, 'All we want to do is exist.'"
“Portrait of a Drag Friendship: Big and Queer and Female” in OutinSTL
“We all found our way to Prism somehow, and everyone — the entertainers, audience members, bartenders, DJ — seemed to be looking for something. St. Moore, in the corset she asked me to help fasten her into, is part of that something. So am I.”
“Dick” in Brevity
“I arrive in face. The concealer and contour, still wet on my cheekbones, gives the illusion that I am a man.”
“Arch Rival Roller Derby Is a Queer Sanctuary” in OutinSTL
“When I joined St. Louis’ flat-track roller derby team in 2016, one of the first things I was told was, ‘Nobody joins roller derby if they have a perfectly happy life. Usually, they’re dealing with some shit.’ That was certainly the case for me. I was 22, newly enrolled in graduate school at Washington University, and carrying a lot of baggage.”
“The Buzz of Prison Lights” in The Ilanot Review
“The prison guard stationed at the entrance of the correctional center was a round man, pink and balding. In one hand, he held a Big Gulp. The other hand was rooting through my bag: a large, clear tote I had been issued specifically for prison visits. He didn’t make eye contact when he said, ‘Ma’am. You can’t bring this device into the facility.’”
“You or the Bone House” in Anmly
A celebration and reckoning of Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Diane Seuss.
“Remembering the Kindness and Master Storytelling of Editor and Author George Hodgman” in LitHub
“I first encountered George Hodgman’s work the year before I entered an MFA program in nonfiction.”
“The Tattooed Man” in Guesthouse
A graphic essay
“Space” in Essay Daily
Part of the Midwessay Series
“Study Guide for Your Teenage Self” in Creative Nonfiction
An outline for escape
“About a Million Joans” in Hobart Magazine
“I tackled the task of picking my roller derby name the same way I make all difficult decisions: careful deliberation and excessive list-making. I gathered names of famous people who inspired me and recruited my friends to help twist the names into something fiercer, or funnier, or gayer.”
“Inside Out and Outside In” in Creative Nonfiction
“Maybe the most interesting approach to immersion work is when the outsider becomes, in the process of the writing, an insider and explores the liminal space between the two.”
“Outside Threats” in K’In
“Outside threats don’t threaten me as much as my mind…”
“Our Bodies and Blood” in Brevity
“There is blood on the pool deck. Coach points and we stare: blood, in the small grooves between tiles; blood, barreling towards the nearest drain like it’s being chased.”
“Orphans” in Guesthouse
“When he died, my grandpa left me his copy of The Complete Illustrated Kama Sutra. I suppose it is wrong to say he left it to me, when in reality he just left it, sitting on his bookshelf beside an old VHS tape called "Nude Yoga."“
“Being Rita” in Arkana
“Back when I was lighter than a barrel of burnt leaves, my grandpa hoisted me up onto his chicken coop to paint the roof eggshell white.”
"On Piss” in The Offing
“Its not usually advisable to drink urine for survival.”
"On Light” in Superstition Review
“After months of darkness, Alaska turned manic. In June, she gifted us entire days of dizzying light. But I was a child of darkness, unaccustomed to the flare. Without towels on my windows, I couldn’t sleep.”
"Stomach” in Split Lip Magazine
“I am told we are animals. Our intelligence makes us superior, some say, but I think that’s bullshit.”
"A Bayou in South Texas,” in Devil’s Lake
“I’ve taught many people how to swim: a pregnant woman with a swollen belly that kept her afloat, a little Hispanic boy with waist-long hair and arms that bent like pipe cleaners, and a Black student from St. Louis who called himself a believer.”