Author. Editor. Michigander.
During the podcast, hosts Bethers and Jori read my story, discuss the art they’ve created for it, and talk about what the piece meant to them. I’m really very touched to be included.
Check out the podcast episode on YouTube
Read the original “Son of Paul Bunyan” story at matchbook here
I’m delighted to be teaching a 6-week comics workshop with Word West!
Each Tuesday, from May 10 to June 14, we’ll talk about diary comics (and graphic narratives), the intersection of writing and memoir and drawing, and really dig deep into what makes a comic work. We’ll also do a ton of drawing (together and on our own), share work, and each student will produce a final comic of their own to share/discuss during our last class. We’ll look at work by Kristen Radtke, Adrian Tomine, Alison Bechdel, Marjane Satrapi, Lee Lei, Mira Jacob, Gene Luen Yang, Ebony Flowers, Craig Thompson, and many others.
No experience? No problem. This class is designed for the writer who dreams of seeing their words paired with their art; for the artist who wants to see their art elevated with a memoirist’s perspective; for the amateur who’s never tried crafting a comic of their own but has always wanted to; for the art-proficient who just need an excuse to get back to it.
The workshop costs $250, and there are only 6 spots in total. If you’re interested, sign up today!
Trying something new with my art. I put together a shirt called DOGS I’D LIKE TO MEET (DILM) for Everpress. Everpress lets artists create limited-edition campaigns for their work; once the campaign ends, Everpress mails out the shirts. This shirt is silly, but I love it, and (more than likely) won’t make this design again.
If you’re interested in a DILM shirt, you have until March 28 to pick one up!
I collaborated with mega-talented Nebraska artist Katie Nieland on a STICKER PACK we’re calling WAY OUT WEST. We each designed three Western-themed stickers (you can see them below). We’ll be selling them in person at Pour Craft Beer & Spirits on Friday, April 1, 2022, from 6:00 – 9:00 PM (in Lincoln, Nebraska).
If you can’t make that, you can buy a pack on Katie’s website.
Thrilled to have a new short story at the Story Works podcast. You can listen/watch me read “Recreation”—about a woman grappling with her husband’s recent crime while they vacation in Northern Michigan—followed by a craft conversation with host Alida Winternheimer. Check it out here (or below).
The final part of my art + words series ORIGIN STORY is up at Gulf Coast. DOLOS examines my fraught history with water, estranged family relationships, how we’re irrevocably changing the planet.
I’ve seen breakwater works all over the world, often crude blocks of rock or cement dropped in shallow waters as a deterrent, or used to help create jetties. Here, I’m stunned not just at the quantity of dolosse, but how they seem to halo the island, as ubiquitous as sand and rock and trees and rain. I lean up from the back seat of the tour van and ask the driver if he knows about them, how old they are, if he has any information about them.
He doesn’t know what I’m talking about at first, so I point to a dolos, then the scores of others we pass. East of us, a storm is darkening the sky. The waves are violent and crashing. He says, laughing, “They protect us from god.”
Read Part 1 (Purple)
Read Part 2 (Wood)
Read Part 3 (Pigeon)
According to Nebraska pioneer folklore, to cure any illness in cattle, hang bittersweet around the animals’ neck.
On a hike in a nature preserve, after I see a penned-in herd of buffalo grazing lazily in a greened-over pond, I find a strand of bittersweet growing wild along the trail. I stop and look up. It really is spears of pink light here chucked down from heaven. The buffalo snort, indifferent to my presence. A Cooper’s hawk circles above, hungry for field mice and toads, clearing the path ahead. I put a wad of the bittersweet in my front pocket and carry on. It’s still too early to see if it’ll make any difference at all.
