Long before I was a writer, I was a listener and reader. As a child, I loved fantasy, old romances, mythology, and fairytales. Every summer, my grandfather would read Ivanhoe to me from an old linen-bound book, his Texan drawl tethering me to Sir Walter Scott’s adventure set in 12th-century England.

Before I was a photographer, I admired the black and white photographs my parents took in Vietnam, where my mother was born: a blurred bicyclist on the street, ocean waves crashing beyond sand hills, my father’s face wrapped in my mother’s arms as both of them looked into the lens above.

In 2016, I earned a BA in Psychology from Cornell College, where I also studied film photography. When I returned to Austin, I worked with neurodivergent middle and high school students, supporting their development of executive functioning and life skills. In 2019, I began volunteering at American Short Fiction and later became a fellow and associate editor.

I moved to Ithaca in 2021 to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at Cornell University. Afterward, I worked as a lecturer, teaching Introduction to Creative Writing and an independent course titled Hauntings in Fiction, Memoir, and Film. While I specialized in fiction, my deep appreciation for other genres is reflected both in my reading and teaching of poetry, personal essays, and short stories. At Cornell, I discovered how passionate I am about shaping learning environments informed by a pedagogy of care. It was deeply fulfilling to help students articulate their interior worlds and contexts through writing.

In addition to volunteering in the arts, my service work has often centered on providing resources and opportunities to people who are incarcerated. I’ve been a reader for the Insider Prize since 2019, wrote letters and sent reading materials on behalf of the Inside Books Project, and have tutored at a maximum-security prison through the Cornell Prison Education Program.

Creativity, curiosity, and care are the values I work to center in all aspects of my life.