What are we without the darkness that lurks inside our hearts, our homes, our forests, our deep places where light does not touch? For some, the darkness is overwhelming, overt, obfuscating. For others, it remains a place of balance; there is no shadow without light, after all. In the stories that follow, strange and eerie things rise from the darkness, but none so frightening as loss. What do we do when grief threatens to overwhelm us? Do we tear our way back into the world of the living with tooth and nail? Do we pray for a miracle? Do we take a life to preserve another? What power loss gives us, a vacuum to fill with fear or love or rage. Dark at the Center is an invitation. It invites us, reader and author alike, to look inside at our own dimly-lit places, to stare into a dark mirror and not recoil from what we see. It invites us to search for gods in the rings of trees. It invites us to plumb the depths of oceans and look to the stars for answers. It invites us to laugh with demons and make friends with the ghosts of our pasts. It invites us to discover what we are capable of in times of crisis. How deep does the darkness go, and what long-forgotten things might we find in its expanse?

This manuscript is a collection of short fiction. The stories explore power structures within Asian and gay male communities, blurring the lines between folklore and memoir, intimacy and abuse, passivity and control. They attempt to complicate and subvert my own self-image by engaging friends and family members who have had formative impacts on my life. In reaching for people and places that no longer exist, these stories function as elegies as well as coming-of-age narratives.

Fault Lines is a collection of nine stories that explore the themes of otherness, isolation, and transitions. In most of these stories I explore the concept of isolation in its many forms— emotional, physical, social, and spiritual. Many of my characters are people who have been "othered" for one reason or another, and many of them are people on the cusp, not only of society but also their own lives. I also explore characters who are on the verge of transition, either staring one down with fear and denial, moving hesitantly and trepidatiously toward one, or, in rare instances, jumping gleefully toward that next big moment in their lives. Many of my characters yearn for something to transcend their ordinary, material lives, whether through a spiritual encounter or simply an ordinary yet unusual one. Some of these characters are stuck in the mire of their current lives, and we see an uncomfortable mix of lethargy and longing. Primarily, I explore exactly what catalysts people require in order to move from a state which, though unsatisfying, might be comfortable, to one that is unknown and risky but potentially fulfilling. The title of the collection refers to those moments or events in one's life that indicate or cause shifts or transitions, whether mental, physical, or emotional. / Master of Fine Arts

Casa Caracol: A Novella and Stories is a two-genre writing project. The novella is a collection of interconnected stories about two Venezuelan female childhood companions, Zafirah and Tamara, who maintain their friendship despite political upheaval and migration. The protagonist, Zafirah, must reconcile her divided cultural identity through the dynamics of her relationship with a new host country and her far-away homeland. The stories, Migrant Voicings, are language driven cuentos that attempt to render what is happening in a migrant-influenced mind. The voicings aim to challenge how a story is told and disrupt the expectations of what the immigrant story is supposed to be. There are thematic links to the novella--migration, Diaspora, alienation, violence, nostalgia and embodied longing, etc--and a vocal link, too, as some of the voices could belong to a grown-up, alternative Zafirah. / Master of Fine Arts

The stories in this collection exist somewhere between the formalist and the fabulist. I use writing to explore topics that interest me such as beauty, movies, reality, and mothers. I hope these stories are ingrained with unexpected surprises and humor. There are elements of absurdism in my stories. However, my work is not an artifact of a political or philosophical ideal. My work is an artifact of who I am. / Master of Fine Arts

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