Told in vignettes spanning the first 27 years of a young woman’s life, this novella explores themes of family, grief, & identity.

Goodbye to the Ocean

I’m writing to share my plans to visit you in the distant future. If my calculations are correct, I’ll reach you in a decade. I hope you’ll be waiting at the end of my journey.

Dear Pluto,

On the outskirts of the city lies a sleepy town I’ve given everything to: first breaths, first birthdays, first broken bones.

Touching the Morning

See that cloud up there?” he’d asked her once. “Looks kind of like an abandoned dress blowing in the wind, doesn’t it?” He traced an outline with his extended finger. “That’s the work of a human being just like you and me."

The Cloud Artist

A mystery: What did they want from me?
Another mystery: What did I?

And I’m worried. So worried.

The Only Constants

When The Human Animal waves goodbye,
it’s like waking up from a bad dream.

"Invertebrate Oral Report (First Attempt)" & "How to Recover in A Stranger's Home"

I still wear the denim pants I pulled on in a rush
that night a brushfire bloomed in our backyard valley
and we fled south towards the city in a silver minivan.

Care Instructions

I once took the wrong exit on a cloverleaf freeway 
and crashed headfirst into a rubber ducky bathing cult.

My Goose is Cooked

It came in a clear plastic clamshell box 
like a homecoming corsage: 
a perfectly ripe kiwi, 
sliced down the center to reveal 
the gleaming purple fruit.

The Purple Kiwi

I know how it feels to be a body
in retrograde. Moving backward,

disoriented from the rest of humanity,
even as you wish to move forward:

Dear Mercury,

The summer of my tenth birthday, I celebrate my newfound freedom by traveling west above the clouds. Stepping off the plane at the end of my journey is like stepping off the planet. I’ve never seen the ocean so blue.

Terrestrial Life

I fainted for the first time in my life last night. When it happened, I’d been walking across the wooden floorboards in the hallway with the sudden, disturbing awareness that my head felt like a foreign object...

The Truth About Unremarkable Things

On xxxxx xx, 2045, the Department received an anonymous call regarding the “inconceivable” deaths of two adults, one male and one female, which was traced to a payphone approximately xxx xxxxx xxxxx of the sprawling campus of xxxx Academy.

The Incident at Ride Academy

When I was young, I had beautiful hair. At least, that’s what everyone on the playground always told me. My long locks were straight, shiny, silky, and blacker than a bottomless hole.

When I Wassssss Young

Dear Mommy,
Mrs. Lyons is trying something new in class today. She says writing is just as important as reading so we’re going to start having WISH Time every Monday. Today, we’re supposed to write a letter to someone. I’m writing to you.

W.I.S.H.

The writer octopus is biologically destined for this line of work. But as an expectant mother, she is running out of time to make her mark.

Three Lesser-Known Writers (And Their Natural Habitats)

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Bedding A Ghost

On your way to a famous national park, you find a city called 2:00 PM. According to the guidebook, it was named that because a dip in the main road causes momentary blindness at that time.

Susan L. Lin

Books

Selected work