The Decade in Dallas Culture | Dallas Morning News & WWD

Thank you to Dan Singer and The Dallas Morning News for including Writing Workshops Dallas in their Special Issue on The Decade in Dallas Culture! We’re honored to be part of #LiteraryDallas and excited to see what the next decade will bring for arts and culture in this great city! If you’d like to join us, browse all WWD Course Offerings Here. We’re looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond!

WWD & Me Profiled in The Advocate Magazine

Thank you to Jaime Dunaway for profiling me in the November 2019 issue of The Advocate Magazine. I got to talk about founding Writing Workshops Dallas, our annual summer workshop in Paris, and my own writing journey up to this point. It is a real honor to be featured in the magazine! If you have a moment, read the profile HERE. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Writing Workshops Dallas Profiled in Poets & Writers Magazine!

Michael Bourne interviewed me about Writing Workshops Dallas for his piece in the September 2019 (MFA) issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. As Founder & Executive Director of WWD, it has been a joy to have so many talented writers find a home teaching at Writing Workshops Dallas AND to have so many wonderful emerging writers trust us with their work. I'm honored to see WWD profiled in this magazine (with a shout out to our summer workshop in France, Writing Workshops Paris)! The issue is on newsstands now!

An AMAZING Writing Workshops Paris 2019!

Writing Workshops Paris 2019 could not have been more amazing! Thank you to the 18 talented writers who made the workshop brilliant, and to Brandon Hobson and Diana Spechler for guiding them in their work! Thank you to Carve Magazine for partnering with Writing Workshops Dallas to bring this summer workshop to life, and to Mike Franz for leading all of our amazing evening activities around Paris!! We stayed in the Latin Quarter and our fiction and nonfiction writers spent their days in genre workshops, 1-on-1s with their workshop instructors, in afternoon seminars on the craft and business of writing, and had a full line-up of evening activities that brought the beauty and literary history of Paris to life. We’re already excited for Writing Workshops Paris 2020, and will begin taking applications Fall 2019! If you’d like to know more and join the mailing list for WWP 2020 notifications, just click here!

New Fiction in D Magazine!

I'm honored to have a new short story called "Into a Blue White Sky" published in the annual fiction issue of D Magazine (July 2019)! Thank you to editor Zac Crain for including my work along with so many great Dallas-based writers: Joe Milazzo, Harry Hunsicker, Will Clarke, Brooke Egerton, Julia Heaberlin, Samantha Mabry, Joaquin Zihuatanejo, & LaToya Watkins.

AND: as the Executive Director of Writing Workshops Dallas, I'm also thrilled there are short stories from 4 WWD instructors in this issue! Grab a copy on newsstands now. You can also read my story online HERE. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Wishing Drogon the Best!

I love story (obviously). David Benioff is one of my favorite novelists (have you read City of Thieves?!). However, I watched Game of Thrones mostly for the dragons. I love Drogon and hope he finds closure in the east and also a new job! To help him, I made a resume to jumpstart his search for a new horde.

Guest on The Fascinating Podcast!

I'm the guest on The Fascinating Podcast this week! I got to talk about creativity, facing and conquering distraction, and a whole lot of other fun things! A great episode for writers and non-writers alike. Thanks to JR Forasteros and Clay Morgan for having me on! Check it out HERE if you have the time!

New Work in McSweeney's

Thank you to McSweeney's for publishing my short humor piece "We’re Parents of Young Children and We Binge-Watch TV Minutes at a Time." I'm thrilled to be published by them again. Big thanks to Tendency Editor Christopher Monks for publishing my work! You can read it here.

Guest on Point of Departure Podcast!

I was the featured guest on the Point of Departure podcast this month and got to talk about founding and directing Writing Workshops Dallas, our work in the literary community here in Dallas, teaching, Writing Workshops Paris, and my own writing. I got to go into a studio and wear headphones, which made it a lot easier (and fun!) to talk about all of these wonderful things. Thank you to Brittany Griffiths and Christopher Moock for having me on the podcast! I think it is a great interview thanks to Brittany's questions and you can listen to it HERE if interested. Thanks so much, as always, for your support!

Featured in Voyage Dallas!

I'm exited to share that as founder and Executive Director of Writing Workshops Dallas, I'm featured in Voyage Dallas as part of their Most Inspiring Stories in Dallas series. You can click HERE to read the article and learn a little bit more about our origin story at Writing Workshops Dallas and a bit about my journey as a writer. Thanks for reading! Happy Writing!

New Story with Aaron Burch!

I co-wrote a story called "ChurchFight" with Aaron Burch and it has just been published in issue two of WOHE LIT. It is the first time I've co-written a story (more are coming with Aaron!) and it was a lot of fun sending this story back and forth. I hope you like it. Thank you to Kevin Maloney for publishing our work! You can read our short piece here. And thanks, as always, for reading!

New Fiction in Booth

I'm honored to have a new short story published in issue 12 of Booth. Thank you to Robert Stapleton and the entire editorial staff for publishing my story! You can purchase a copy of this beautiful journal here. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Panelist on Literary Community at Interabang Books!

It was such an amazing turnout at Interabang Books on Tuesday night for the panel on Building and Finding Literary Community. I was honored to be part of this amazing night. Thank you to The Writers' League of Texas for putting on this great event and inviting me to be on a panel featuring other Dallas-based authors Kathleen Kent, Tex Thompson, and Melissa Lenhardt.

If it weren't for the literary community I wouldn't be the writer I am today. I have my time at Brookhaven Junior College and an MFA from UC-Irvine to thank for the kind of writer I am today. For many writers, finding a community is an essential step that leads them to take their work and craft more seriously. It's time you found your writing community. If you're looking for an excellent creative writing workshop in Dallas, check out Writing Workshops Dallas. I hope you’ll take your next step with WWD and enroll in one of our many creative writing courses, available on the Classes page.

Featured in D Magazine as an Artist to Learn From in 2018!

As the Founder & Director of Writing Workshops Dallas, I'm honored to be featured in D Magazine's article on artists to learn from in 2018! Thank you to Lyndsay Knecht for featuring me! We had 224 writers around the workshop table at WWD in 2017 and are excited about what we have in store for 2018. Won't you join us in 2018 for a class or seminar and get to THE END of your project this year!

New Fiction in VICE

I'm really excited to have a new short story published by Vice's science fiction magazine Terraform. The story is called "Last Day at the Department of Oxygen" and I can't thank Brian Merchant enough for accepting this story and offering really insightful edits! You can read the story here. Thanks, as always, for reading! I also want to link to all of the amazing artwork that Vice commissioned artist Surian Soosay to make for my short story. You can see all of the images here. They're awesome!

New Work in The Los Angeles Review

Thank you to The Los Angeles Review for publishing "Mall Shooter," the first piece of non-fiction that I've ever had published. It recounts the time my wife, then nine months pregnant with our first child, and I had to run from a shooter. You can read the piece here. As always, thank you for reading!

New Fiction in Malibu Magazine

My short story "The Catching" is published in the July/August 2017 issue of Malibu Magazine. You can order the new issue here or pick up a copy on newsstands nationwide. I'm really thrilled to have new work featured in this magazine again, which they have also featured online. Thank you to editor E. Ryan Ellis for publishing my fiction in this fantastic new issue!

New Fiction in Monkeybicycle

Thanks to James Tate Hill for accepting my story "Priced to Sell" for publication at Monkeybicycle. This is the 3rd story I've published with MB and I'm honored they took this one. It went online today and you can read it here. As always, thanks for reading!

Writing Workshops Dallas - Now Enrolling

Writing Workshops Dallas is an independent writing school created for hardworking, talented writers who want to strengthen their voice, develop a greater understanding of craft, and forge a path to publication along the way. We offer multi-level writing courses, seminars, and individual consultations to fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and poets. No matter the stage of your career, there is a place for you at Writing Workshops Dallas. Our classes are inclusive and intentionally small, offered four times a year, beginning in January, April, July, and October. All workshops are held at The Mix in East Dallas.

I founded Writing Workshops Dallas to fill a need for creative writers in the Metroplex who want a creative community outside of the university system as well as for those writers planning to apply for and pursue an MFA. For many writers, finding a community is an essential step that leads them to take their work and craft more seriously. I hope you’ll take this step with us and enroll in one of the many creative courses Writing Workshops Dallas has to offer.

New Fiction in Malibu Magazine

I have new short fiction in the January/February 2017 issue of Malibu Magazine. You can order the new issue here or pick up a copy on newsstands nationwide. I'm really thrilled to have new work featured in this magazine accompanied with beautiful artwork. Thank you to editor and fellow North Texan E. Ryan Ellis for publishing my fiction in this fantastic new issue!

Book Review + New Fiction

My review of Nicholas Mainieri’s debut novel, The Infinite, is up at the Washington Independent Review of Books. This exceptional debut, set in post-Katrina New Orleans and northern Mexico, weaves a complex tale of love and loss. You can read my review here.

I was also asked to contribute a short piece of fiction to the new literary magazine Boink, which you can read here. I'm honored the editors asked me to be part of the debut issue! Thanks so much to Rob Parrish, Chelsea Laine Wells, and Robert Vaughn for having me!

New Fiction in Redivider

Today is my birthday and I'm so happy to have a story in the new issue of Redivider, a publication I have long admired. They've published my story "The Demo" in issue 13.2, along with a ton of other great work. I'm humbled to be in the issue.

Being honest, "The Demo" is one of my favorite stories that I've ever written. I wrote a first draft in the MFA workshop at UC-Irvine when novelist and Irvine-alum Glen David Gold was our workshop leader for the quarter. I was so lucky Glen read this story. He said it was a good first draft, but I needed to make everything get worse for the main character. That's one way to write comedy. Glen turned me on to Thomas Berger, said I needed to read him. So I did, immediately. And Berger has been a guidepost for me ever since. That was in the winter of 2012, and it only took about four years for this story to find a home after countless revisions. But I'm so happy with the story, that I kept after it, and that Glen knew what to say to me. So thanks, Glen! You can purchase a copy of issue Redivider 13.2 here, and I hope you do! Thanks for reading!

Book Review

I reviewed Dan Cluchey's debut novel, The Life of the World to Come, for the Washington Independent Review of Books. Cluchey's debut is chock-full of heart and humor and a dose of sadness. You can read my review here.

New Fiction in Faultline

I'm honored to have a story in the new issue of Faultline, along with new work from Ismet Prcic, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Venita Blackburn, Patrick Ryan, Patricia Engel, and Ryan Ridge.

A million thank yous to my friend Jenni Milton for including my story and for working with me on several rounds of edits to get my story "Picketers" just right! If you'd like to order a copy of this issue simply click here. As always, thanks for reading!

New Fiction in Booth

My short story "Steve Harvey & Carlos II" was published by Booth today. Thank you to editors Robert Stapleton and Chris Speckman for publishing my story.

"Steve Harvey & Carlos II" is another short story in a series I'm writing dedicated to my best friend, Army 2nd Lieutenant Peter H. Burks, who was killed by an IED just outside the Green Zone in Baghdad on November 14th, 2007. You can read my story here. As always, thanks for reading!