At the end of this month, I’m delighted to be presenting at Colgate University’s Spring 2019 Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series on the connections between human language and environmental justice. This talk converges my teaching in environmental literature and creative writing, as well as how environmental justice shapes the language of my own creative work. I’m so looking forward to the event – if you’re in the area, please join us on Tuesday, April 30th at 4:15pm!

I’m thrilled to have a short story, “Stockholm,” in the newly relaunched Spring 2019 issue of STORY, alongside fiction by Phong Nguyen, Dionne Irving, Brett Beach, A.A. Balaskovits, Katherine Zlabek, and many others. Huge thanks to editor Michael Nye for including my work!

This coming summer, I’m delighted to join the lineup of faculty for the Colgate Writers’ Conference being held June 16-22, 2019. I’m leading an intensive novel-writing workshop, as well as giving a craft talk and reading. I’m thrilled to work alongside other faculty such as Jennifer Brice, CJ Hauser, Jenny Xie, Naomi Jackson, Angela Palm and Brock Clarke. Registration is open until March 30th!

Hello from Santa Fe, where I’ll be in residence until late January as a Fellow with the Women’s International Study Center. I’m working on a new novel set in Santa Fe and making use of the state archives for research, and I’m also enjoying the space and time this month to draft and structure this new manuscript. Enormous thanks to director Jordan Young and the WISC board for providing me with this amazing opportunity! Here’s to beginning 2019 with creativity, generative energy, peace and joy.

First pre-pub alert! This past month, Library Journal published its Emerging Stars preview for Literary Fiction, which included The Desert Sky Before Us for its May release radar. Many thanks to editor Barbara Hoffert for including me on this list!

This week I’ll be traveling to SUNY-Fredonia for the Mary Louise Visiting Writers Series, with many thanks to creative writing faculty Eric Schlich for inviting me. I’ll be giving a craft talk today and a reading tomorrow. Very much looking forward to visiting and to meeting Fredonia’s students!

This week I had the phenomenal pleasure of visiting the University of Alaska-Fairbanks for the Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series, where I gave a craft talk and reading and had the chance to meet with the program’s really talented MFA students and work with them on fiction manuscripts. It was such a wonderful visit, and I’m so grateful to Sara Eliza Johnson for inviting me – and also for taking me out to see Denali National Park, Chena Hot Springs and the northern lights!

Here is the official Publishers Marketplace announcement (and title change alert)!

The Desert Sky Before Us is due out from William Morrow/HarperCollins in May 2019. Many, many thanks to Kerry D’Agostino, Margaux Weisman and Jessica Williams. Cover coming soon!

In advance of BookFest 2018 this weekend, St. Louis Magazine was so kind to interview me about Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down, about writing about my hometown, and about this weekend’s Fresh Fierce Fiction panel where I’ll be discussing fierce fiction at 12pm on Saturday with Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Rebecca Makkai and Deborah Eisenberg. Huge thanks to editor Amanda Woytus for taking the time to chat with me!