Writing

Essays

Shrieks & Howls: my semi-monthly newsletter examines the connections between the romcom and horror genres, two films at a time. You can peruse the archives, subscribe, or check out a few of my favorites:

• • • The Exorcism of Emily in Paris, or: Hex and the City (on Emily in Paris and The Exorcism of Emily Rose)
    • The Silence of the Lamb Chop (on The Silence of the Lambs and Lamb Chop’s Play-Along)
    • John Carpenter’s The (Sweetest) Thing (on The Sweetest Thing and The Thing)

The Wars of the Worlds: The Many Afterlives of an 1897 Mars-Attacks Novel / Stanford Live Magazine / October 5, 2021

Your Inside(s) Aren’t Safe: Killer Color in the Domestic Gothic / Tor Nightfire / August 9, 2021

Teaching William E. Stafford’s “Traveling through the Dark” / Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) online / July 15, 2021

“An Unhaunted Landscape: The Anti-Gothic Impulse in Ambrose Bierce’s “A Tough Tussle” / Fear and Nature: Ecohorror in the Anthropocene, Pennsylvania State University Press / May 10, 2021

Phantom Wavelengths: Three Tales of Invisible Color / Tor Nightfire / February 17, 2021

Color in Horror: The Grim Rainbow of American Gothic Fiction  / Tor Nightfire / January 26, 2021

“Misery” Is a Horrifying Love Letter to the Physical Act of Writing / Electric Literature / November 30, 2020

“American Psycho,” “American Beauty,” “American Pie”: White Male Rage at the Turn of the Millennium / Los Angeles Review of Books / October 14, 2020

Sicko Doctors: Suffering and Sadism in 19th-Century America / Public Domain Review / July 1, 2020

no tears left to cry, So / The Racket No. 6 / May 12, 2020

The Horror at the Heart of the Island Paradise Fantasy / Electric Literature / April 23, 2020

Why We Keep Getting New Adaptations of “The Turn of the Screw” / Electric Literature / April 9, 2020

Pivotal Works by Margaret Atwood / Stanford Live Magazine / March 8, 2020

The Rise of the Downfall of the Dirtbag Heiress / Literary Hub / December 13, 2019

“Lurid Interiors”: The Anti-Gothic Impulse in Early American War Literature (PhD dissertation) / Stanford University / August 2019

8 Vacation Home Horrors: Summertime Madness / Horror Homeroom / April 18, 2019

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Reported features

New Indigenous Writers Lecture Series showcases contemporary Native voices / Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences website / February 27, 2020

Jia Tolentino on cultivating a writing practice—and the self—in a shifting media landscape / The Clayman Institute for Gender Research: News / January 27, 2020

Stanford historian traces military’s influence on modern American nutrition / Stanford News Service / January 17, 2019

Stanford scholar traces roots of South Korea’s cosmetic surgery surge / Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences website / October 8, 2018

Stanford music scholar explains Beethoven’s rise as a cultural icon in China / Stanford News Service / May 10, 2016

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Poetry

Advice I Wish I’d Been Given When I Was a 12-Year-Old Girl about to Watch The Exorcist for the First Time / Vastarien / Spring 2020

• • Reprinted in Pseudopod, August 2021

The Mayor’s statement to the people of Amity announcing that the beaches will remain open despite a precipitously rising shark attack death toll / The Racket / October 2020

Leatherface / sPARKLE + bLINK 103 / January 2020

u up? / sPARKLE + bLINK 102 / November 4, 2019; republished in The Racket / July 2020

Cave Child / sPARKLE + bLINK 44 / October 2013