The following is a collection of six short stories written between 2014 and 2016. While the short stories are not connected, they tend to grapple with issues of grief and belonging. Characters who struggle to name their feelings, to inhabit them, and yet feel them nonetheless, populate these pages. There is also a theme of fantastical bodies in some of the stories--women who levitate and little boys who suffer heart problems when they feel too much joy. The interplay between emotion and physical ailment is exaggerated and dramatized in these instances.

Scattered Sandpipers is a Young Adult novel excerpt. Seventeen-year-old Bee, lost her mother two years ago in a car crash. As she denies and represses her grief, strange and magical things begin to happen.

This collection of short stories explores the depths of human emotions as seemingly unrelated characters in an Indiana community react to tragedies, including death, divorce, abuse, financial struggles, and assault. Each character experiences intense isolation and hopelessness, and some question the presence of a God who would allow such suffering. Not only are the protagonists' stories unique, but the characters themselves are diverse, encompassing different ages, genders, races, and class levels. Each story is linked by a cause-and-effect in which one person's reaction to grief creates tragedy in someone else's life. Therefore, the protagonist of one story becomes the antagonist of the next, and readers get a glimpse into both sides of the conflict. This chain reaction continues until the final story, in which the protagonist chooses to deal with his grief through faith and forgiveness, offering his attacker redemption and exemplifying the depth of God's love. / Portrait of Jesus (1988) -- The deep end (2003) -- Wrongful death (2005) -- Double shift (2006) -- The fight (2006) -- The path (2006) / Department of English

August Diamond is left lost after the sudden death of her father. The stories in Dance Lessons explore the themes of loss and grief, retreat and return, and finding your true self. The collection is a novel in stories, each story exposing another layer of August's past, her family, and their complicated relationships.