Selected Writing Works

“'The Truth' and 'first time': Two Prompts that Invite Emotion and Reflection,” Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry, edited by Matthew Burgess. New York: Teachers & Writers Collaborative, January 2019.

"After: Life," essay, EXQUISITE: An anthology of writing by the winners of the Sarah Verdone Writing Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, March 2018.

Letter From Morocco: "Lost Girls: Women, sex and the Arab Spring"
November 2015

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"Lost Girls" received some nice accolades. Here are a few:

Longreads Best of 2015 + Longreads No. 1 Pick of the Week

Longform Pick of the Week

BuzzFeed's BuzzReads "9 Feature Stories You Can't Miss This Week"

Foreign Policy pick for one of the best stories from around the world

Bustle.com as a feminist reading pick of the week

"What We Want Is Your Boy"
Revisiting the mysterious and mystifying case of Johnny Gosch, missing since 1982
September 2015

"On Swimming," essay, Some Call It Ballin', Issue 2, Spring/Summer 2014.

"Point of Departure," essay, The Iowa Review, Volume 41, Issue 2, Fall 2011.

Writing Awards, Grants, and Residencies

  • Scholar, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Middlebury College

  • Accepted (unable to attend), Yaddo

  • Sarah Verdone Writing Award, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

  • Grantee, Travel and Study Grant in Literature (France), The Jerome Foundation

  • Full fellowship, Aspen Summer Words, The Aspen Writers' Foundation

  • Writer-in-Residence, Workspace, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

  • Wait-list, Yaddo

  • Finalist, Barbara Deming Fund/Money for Women

  • Finalist, Elizabeth George Foundation

  • Finalist, The Steinbeck Fellowship, The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, San Jose State University

  • Co-recipient with photographer Tiana Markova-Gold, Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University

  • Grantee, Travel and Study Grant in Literature (Iowa), The Jerome Foundation

  • Finalist (twice), The Iowa Award in Fiction, The Iowa Review

  • Finalist, The Iowa Award in Nonfiction, The Iowa Review

  • Artist Fellow in Nonfiction Literature, New York Foundation for the Arts

  • Resident, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

  • Resident (twice), The Ragdale Foundation

  • Fulbright Fellow of the Arts in Morocco, U.S. Department of State

  • Critical Language Enhancement Award for Arabic Study, U.S. Dept. of State

  • Finalist, The Bechtel Prize, Teachers & Writers Collaborative

  • Mid-Atlantic Fiction Fellow at The Millay Colony for the Arts