AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS IN 2020
My short piece What Water Remembers (a stand-alone excerpt from my novel-in-progress The Taste of Names) was published in Michigan Quarterly Review, Not One Without: A Special Issue on Water.
This piece reflects my ancestral beliefs and traditions and is written in the collective voice of Water (first-person plural). Giving a voice to Water and the “more-than-human world” in my writing feels like the truest thing I can say at this time of great upheaval. You can read What Water Remembers here and listen to it here.
My poem titled Who Am I From (A Brief History of a Migration), was selected to be included in the social media campaign highlighting the creative work of immigrants and refugees in the state of Utah. Select poems were featured in video form during Welcoming Salt Lake Week organized by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and Utah Humanities Book Festival. Welcoming Salt Lake is an annual celebration bringing together people and local events that celebrate the contributions of immigrants and refugees and highlight the role communities play in ensuring everyone feels welcome. All of Welcoming Salt Lake 2020 events this year were held virtually. You can watch the video of me reading Who Am I From (A Brief History of a Migration) here.
My short piece Rada’s Story (a stand-alone excerpt from my novel-in-progress The Taste of Names) was shortlisted in the Fractured Literary 2020 Flash Fiction Contest, judged by Megan Giddings.
My short non-fiction piece entitled We Were Made for These Times, which tackles the COVID-19 pandemic and my experiences as an immigrant and a survivor of the 1999 NATO bombing of ex-Yugoslavia, was published in the Media Rise’s Quarantined Across Borders Collection. Quarantined Across Borders is a collection of stories from people around the world who are writing about their experiences and observations while in quarantine. Media Rise has curated this collection of uplifting and thought-provoking stories on quarantine experiences across the globe. The collection includes personal stories, essays, and poems on borderlands, immigrant life, coping, and connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This piece was also selected as a finalist for the 2020 International Literary Awards: Penelope Niven Creative Nonfiction Award (judged by Alison Stine).
You can read We Were Made for These Times on my blog.
My short story Things With Souls was published in WORDPEACE Literary Journal. You can read it here.
Three of my poems, My Unquiet Life, Of Billy Goat Men and Almost Women, and That Which You Are Made Of are featured in the upcoming Spring 2021 Pitkin Review.
EARLIER PUBLICATIONS & AWARDS (2016-2019)
Awards (prior to 2020)
A Tiger’s Climb and Unfindable Girl (short stories)
Semi-finalist in the 2019 American Short(er) Fiction Contest.
What We Leave Behind (short story)
Finalist in the Adult Fiction category of the 2018 San Francisco Writing Contest
The Taste of Names (novel excerpt)
Semi-finalist for the 2017 Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, Nimrod International Journal
Bash Chelik (short story)
2nd place in the Fiction category, 2017 League of Utah Writers Creative Writing Contest
My Desert Child (prose poem)
2nd place in the Prose Poetry category, 2017 League of Utah Writers Creative Writing Contest.
That Which You Are Made of (poem)
Finalist for the 4th annual Alfred Lambourne Prize for Literary Arts (2017)
The Taste of Names (novel excerpt)
Shortlist Winner Nominee for the Adelaide Literary Award for Best Short Story for 2017
The Taste of Names (novel excerpt)
Finalist in the 2017 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest.
The Taste of Names (novel excerpt)
Finalist for the 2017 International Literary Awards Reynolds Price Award in Fiction.
Bash Chelik (short story)
Finalist for the 2017 International Literary Awards Reynolds Price Award in Fiction.
The Taste of Names (novel excerpt)
Winner in the Adult Fiction category of the 2017 San Francisco Writing Contest.
Bash Chelik (short story)
Finalist in the Adult Fiction category of the 2017 San Francisco Writing Contest
My Desert Child (short story)
Finalist for the 2016 International Literary Awards Reynolds Price Prize in Fiction
My Desert Child (short story)
Runner Up in the Fiction category of the 2016 San Francisco Writing Contest
Publications (prior to 2020)
Dolores (Poem). In This Bridge We Call Communication: Anzaldúan Approaches to Theory, Method, and Praxis, Leandra Hinojosa Hernández & Robert Gutierrez-Perez (Eds), 2019.
La Dueña De La Casa (Poem). In This Bridge We Call Communication: Anzaldúan Approaches to Theory, Method, and Praxis, Leandra Hinojosa Hernández & Robert Gutierrez-Perez (Eds), 2019.
What We Leave Behind (Short story). A Year of the Monkeys: Genre Fiction from the Infinite Monkeys (Anthology), 2018.
The Taste of Names (Novel excerpt). Adelaide Literary Awards 2017 Anthology: Special Issue of the Adelaide Literary Magazine (Vol. 9), 2017.
The House of Hope (Poem). I Come From The World Literary Journal (Inaugural Issue), 2017.
Praise the Day (Poem). I Come From The World Literary Journal (Inaugural Issue), 2017.
Stigmatized Disclosures. (Short Story). Permafrost Magazine Literary Journal, 2017.
Communicating about and coping with loss, uncertainty, and self-imposed stigma about miscarriage (Nonfiction, co-authored with Margie Serrato). In Interrogating Pregnancy Loss: Feminist Writings on Abortion, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth, Emily R.M. Lind & Angie Deveau (Eds.), 2017.
