Who am I?
I am a first-generation Canadian living in Tkaronto. My writing won some awards and scholarships, at UBC (MFA) and at York (HBA in Creative Writing and English), which is why I’ve never given up. My stories appear in various literary magazines (see Stories). I am the founder/curator/host of Junction Reads, a prose reading series in the west end of Toronto. My debut collection, BREATHING IS HOW SOME PEOPLE STAY ALIVE was published by Guernica Editions March 2026. DREAMS OF THE WEARY, my debut novel is forthcoming (Palimpsest Press, 2028).
Photo by Angela Lewis.
Why do I write?
We went to church every Sunday when I was little. It made Sundays the worst day of the week. Not because of God and all that, but because the getting to church, the being whipped into shape and the being dragged into the car was filled with an overwhelming amount of anxiety and fear.
In church, I’d escape my little life and imagine other lives. I wrote fairy tales with characters inspired by the prayerful mob in the pews. I called the Monsignor, Monster and imagined hell-fire kinds of stories. Then when I was a middle-grader, a favourite priest married the woman who owned the store where I bought my candy because she was pregnant, and I knew, stories didn’t have to be fantastic to be, well, fantastic. I love real stories that are darkly funny and weird. I like stories that make me feel the torturous pain, carnal joy, overwhelming sadness, and the grimy, yucky suckiness of every day life.
What do I read?
On any given day, you can find me reading short stories. I read them in one of my favourite literary magazines (Room, The Temz Review, The Ex-Puritan, Paris Review, Grain, Dreamers and so many others!), or in a collection by one of my favourite writers, George Saunders. I am also a huge fan of Chekhov, and some other Canadian short story writers: Elaine McCluskey, Caitlin Galway, Jaclyn Desforges, Cary Fagan, Lindsay Wong, Damian Tarnopolsky, Kim Fu, and a thousand more.
My longer fiction faves have no cohesive link because I am usually reading a memoir or novel from one of our Junction Reads authors, or I’ve picked through my Little Free Library, or I’ve grabbed a book from my local library’s favourites table. I like books with characters who are struggling to survive, not simply because they’ve got a serial killer on their tale, or because they’re stuck in a crappy relationship, but also because they can’t imagine how they might thrive beyond their situation, their trauma, their self-doubt etc. I read fiction that will make a difference to me and my mind, or to the world.
Where do I write?
I have a spot in my bedroom, a chair surrounded by bookshelves. It faces a window where my thoughts can wander among the trees and clouds until they’re ready to be collected and put on a train to somewhere (I don’t always know where). There are an awful lot of how-to books, and books on art that I skim and probably should deeply read.
A writer. 