What I write

I write, primarily, introspective genre fiction and nonfiction that tends to focus on religion and culture. I also sometimes do translations, especially of Japanese poetry. Off-site, I’m a contributor at the Catholic news and opinion website Where Peter Is.

Common characters, situations, and themes in my fiction include complicated historical or fantastical conflict, philosophical and political deep dives, female characters in general and female protagonists in particular being reprehensible in new and exciting ways, rural New England being the center of the universe (imagine Anne Shirley becoming Grand Admiral of Imperial Terran Hyperspace Command and still thinking about Prince Edward Island the exact same way she does in the actual Anne books, except it’s Western Massachusetts), and various concepts jacked from half-remembered late-2000s anime.

My nonfiction is a grab bag of whatever’s inspiring me to write essays lately; the summary two paragraphs above is vague and general for a reason. I think of a lot of it as 随筆 zuihitsu, a Japanese nonfiction genre whose name translates “following the pen” but that I might interpret as “just an observation.” Structurally it might look a lot like discursive, even academic argumentation, but at heart most of it just consists of me working out my thoughts on whatever the subject happens to be. Take it for what it’s worth.

Favorite Japanese poets to translate include Miyazawa, Yosano, Kaneko, and other figures of the same general time period. I’ve also done some translations of folk poetry and short stories.

Writing on this website is under the standard draconian US copyright regime with me as the sole rights-holder unless otherwise specified; sorry. However, I believe in a very generous interpretation of fair use so it’s unlikely I’ll go after you, and if I’m not feeling particularly proprietary about something I’ll put a Creative Commons license on it.