Writing

Delmarva Review Anthology

The Delmarva Review has released their first anthology, a beautiful book spanning the best of sixteen years of publications. Included are two of my prose pieces: “Nursing 101,” creative nonfiction from Volume 4 (2011), and “Undertow,” a short story from Volume 6 (2013). I am so pleased to be one of the seventy-five authors selected, and the only author represented in both the nonfiction and fiction sections.

The Delmarva Review was my first literary magazine acceptance. They published my work three times while I was a nursing student in Baltimore, and I cannot overstate how supportive they were of both the work they published and of me as a writer. I learned so much just going over edits with the team. Twice they invited me to read at the Writer’s Center. I drove my battered car—the Toyota I later sold to the autobody shop to cover my outstanding repair bills—to Bethesda, and at the end of my first reading, they let me take home the extra cheese plate. I made fancy pepper jack omelettes for my classmates. I remember exactly where I was when I opened my email to find out they’d nominated me for a Pushcart Prize. Twice, they interviewed me for Writer’s Edition on Delmarva Public Radio.

On a very concrete, editorial level, The Delmarva Review helped me become a much better writer. But they also introduced me to the idea of literary community and taught me what that looked like.

All of which is to say: I am deeply grateful. Support literary magazines in general, and the Delmarva Review in particular. Buy a copy of this anthology. I’m proud to be included.

Writer Mother Monster

Lara Ehrlich and I had a conversation on Writer Mother Monster, her “interactive interview series devoted to dismantling the myth of having it all and offering writer-moms solidarity, support, and advice as we make space for creative endeavors.” Thanks to everyone who listened live, and thanks to my partner for setting up satellite internet that would actually work for a full hour without crashing.

You can watch the interview here,

Or listen to it here or wherever you stream podcasts.

I met Lara at the Tin House Winter Workshop in 2019 and am a huge fan of her book Animal Wife from Red Hen Press. You can get a copy of Animal Wife here, or check out Lara’s website.

Table Talk in Threepenny Review

I have a short essay published in the Table Talk section of Threepenny Review, Issue 158. You can purchase a copy online here.

A year ago I found a published collection of Threepenny‘s Table Talk essays and read them cover to cover. It’s such an honor to have my own Table Talk essay published now by such an amazing literary magazine.

My short essay – “We are your doctors, and this is the aftermath of idealism” – is about burnout and my frustrations with the U.S. healthcare system. It is a story of working in primary care, but it is not the story of working in primary care.

Wendy Lesser sent me a card and I danced in the post office with fangirl happiness:

threepennyreview

Understanding Book Use and Its Impact on You

My story “Understanding Book Use and Its Impact on You” has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine.

dangerous books

I drafted this story during a slow shift at an urgent care, in which I alternated between reading the clinic’s drug treatment pamphlets and compulsively checking the hold queue on my online public library account between patients.

You should know that I screen BAST-10 positive.

You can read the story online here.

“Doreen” in Joyland

My short fiction story “Doreen” is out in Joyland Magazine and can now be read in full on their website.

As The Seattle Review of Books wrote after last month’s Lit Crawl, “Joyland Magazine is built on a contradiction that isn’t one: that fiction is both an international movement and grounded in local communities. They have editors throughout the United States and Canada who are responsible for curating stories that define each region’s unique character, and they publish by the map — stories are grouped and tagged by location, so readers get to know the flavor of a particular place.”

From the same review: “Adams’ ‘Doreen’ (coming next issue) takes a woman comfortably padded against unpleasantness into the teeth of the medical system.”

Thanks to Joyland PNW editor Kait Heacock for picking “Doreen” out of the pile and giving it a home.