About Me
About Me
I double like a bad reflection, too indistinct to shave by, torn between dichotomies. East, west; man, woman; Christian, atheist--living somewhere in the split image.
Experience
I was a Write Like Us mentor for 2022/23. I was also the Associate Poetry Editor at Runestone Literary Journal, a national undergraduate journal, for the award winning Volume 3. My duties also included teaching the poetry board, comprised of Hamline University Creative Writing majors.
In the Fall of 2017, I taught a section of Introduction to Creative Writing, a course undergraduate students of Hamline University could take to fulfill their writing requirement. The class was designed for non-majors who were interested in exploring creative writing. We worked in all genres.
I've also taught workshops on Plot at the Loft Literary Center.
In the past, I've been an intern at Coffee House Press (Fall 2017), Graywolf Press (Spring 2016), and a reader for Ruminate Magazine (2014, 2015).
I was a fellow for the 2018 VONA/Voices and 2019/20 Loft Mentor Series.
I currently serve on the board for Rain Taxi.
Education
I have an MFA from the Creative Writing Program at Hamline University ('17--Saint Paul, MN), where I've had the privilege of working with amazing writers such as Deborah Keenan, Sheila O'Connor, Patricia Francisco, John Brandon, Swati Avasthi, and others.
My undergraduate degrees (BA, '11) were in English and Religion, with minors in Gender Studies and Writing, at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI). I then completed a Masters of Theological Studies (MTS, '13) at Calvin Theological Seminary as well as a post-graduate Masters of Theology (ThM, '14) at the same Seminary (and wherein I lost my faith). My concentrations in both were Systematic Theology, and my 100-page ThM thesis focused on the misuse of a clause in the opening chapter Genesis to discredit transgender experiences as unchristian.
Picture courtesy of Dena Denny (see her facebook page here)
Bio
Malaysian Eurasian is less an ethnicity than a grabbag that roughly covering the descendants of Asian women who were knocked up by European colonialists (predominantly from England, Portugal, and the Netherlands). Most Malaysians are only vaguely aware of the existence of Eurasians and are usually surprised to find out we've lived in the region for centuries. Because Europeans would treat Eurasians a little better depending on how European they looked/acted, it's part of our cultural DNA to emphasize our European heritage (through fruit cake, tarts, and turkeys for Christmas, being Christian, etc).
Though most are Catholic, I grew up Pentecostal for 15 years, then was generally Presbyterian/Reformed (Calvinist traditions) for the next nine years before my faith crumbled about 5 semesters into my 3 year stint at seminary.
I was raised as a boy, lived fully feminine for about a year, then settled on a more androgynous approach (presenting as mostly masculine and identifying as more feminine). I'm pronoun ambivalent and go by all of them with different people--to all people, all things, to paraphrase someone I used to admire.
Publications
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"The Anchoress" : The Rain Taxi Review of Books, Fall 2015 (review)
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"Haymaker" : The Rain Taxi Review of Books, Fall 2015 (review)
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"The Bride of Christ" : A-Minor Magazine, September 2016 (Fiction)
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"Bottleneck" : The Southwest Review, April 2017 (Poem)
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"Kiss" : Sweet: A Literary Confection, August 2017 (CNF)
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"Forgive Not My Transgressions" : Crab Orchard Review, Fall 2018 (CNF)
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"The Pretty or the Brave" : Minnesota Women's Press, January 2019 (CNF)
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"Stir" : The Brown Orient, Dec 2019 (Fiction)
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"I Could Have Said Goodbye" : The Brown Orient, Dec 2019 (Fiction)
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"The Boy with the Tail" : The Margins, Oct 2022 (Fiction)
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"House in the Sky", The Account, Forthcoming (Fiction)
Miscellaneous Skills
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A god of Tetris
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Whistling two notes at once in harmony
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Enduring judgment of animal frenemies
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Crafting puns
