Author, Leaving is My Colour/ (Freight, 2017)
Publications Print: Journals / Anthologies / Thesis
PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow: Wake Me When It’s Over and Will the Real Scarlett O’Hara Please Stand Up: a critical meditation on creative study:
This thesis demonstrates, pragmatically rather than theoretically, that perceived dissonances between the critical and creative elements of postgraduate study in Creative Writing need not alienate the creative practitioner. To exemplify the opportunities faced by student writers, this thesis comprises two elements: a novel, Wake Me When It’s Over, and a critical narrative, Will the Real Scarlett O’Hara Please Stand Up: A Critical Meditation on Creative Study. Together these elements emphasize the importance of creative discovery while embracing the indispensable benefits of rigorous critical exploration. Wake Me When It’s Over is an American picaresque novel in which the main character, Rachel Bennett, takes to the road with a death wish and an unhealthy fixation on an incomplete collection of state spoons. Along the way Rachel examines the clichés and normative values that form the bedrock of her self-perception and finds that her will to destruction may be the very thing that saves her life. Will the Real Scarlett O’Hara Please Stand Up: A Critical Meditation on Creative Study continues this theme with Rachel’s help. A tribute to Hunter S. Thompson and Lewis Carroll, this Gonzo-through-the-looking-glass critical narrative combines homage, parody, satire and humour to illuminate the relationship between the critical and creative, to dispel misconceptions about the writing life, and to examine ways that these myths manifest on the page and in the classroom.
Biscuit Short Story Winners’ Anthology 2009
Let’s Pretend (InFidelity) Anthology
Green Muse
QWF, Quality Women’s Fiction
Unbound Press
Nonfiction Publications Online
Wandering Around and Found (Cullman, Alabama: Hubert Richter Chapel)
Mulberry Fork Review (Book Review – Helen Fitzgerald: The Exit)
Six Questions For… (Interview)
Metazan (Self-Interview)
Fiction Publications Online
Cleaver Magazine (Hunger)
Ink, Sweat, and Tears (Remembrance of Things Past)
Melancholy Hyperbole (Mushroomed)
Leaves of Ink (The Devil Knows How to Row)
Smashed Cat Magazine (Everything I’d Never Know)
Fiction on the Web (Math is Funny)
971 Menu
From Glasgow to Saturn (Go Forth and Prosper)
Metazen
Fox Chase Review
Dew on the Kudzu (Close Shave)
Clapboard House
Brown Williams Journal (Vows)
Short, Fast, and Deadly (The Barking Lily)
The Legendary (Maison des Reptiles)
Fiction at Work
Appearance / Performance / Reading
March 17, 2012 – Aye Write Festival / Sceptre Prize Presentation / Glasgow
August 15, 2011 – Edinburgh International Book Festival / Gutter Unbound Event
July 20, 2011 – The Golden Hour / Edinburgh / The Forest
May 6, 2011 – Reading the Leaves / Glasgow / Tchai Ovna
April 19, 2011 – University of GlasgowAnatomyMuseum / Glasgow / Spilling Ink: Volume 1 Launch Party
April 10, 2011 – The Arches / Glasgow / Words Per Minute
April 8, 2011 – Hetherington Club / University of Glasgow / Hosted by Louise Welsh
February 15, 2011 – National Library of Scotland / Gutter’s Alternative Valentine’s Day / Hosted by Adrian Searle
November 6, 2010 – Tramway Theatre, Glasgow / Unlacing Orlando: Virginia Woolf Symposium
August 26, 2010 – Edinburgh International Book Festival / Dragon’s Pen Event
March 23, 2010 – Glasgow International Comedy Festival / The Arches / Discombobulate
October 14, 2009 – Glasgow Women’s Library / Experience Counts
August 26, 2009 – Edinburgh International Book Festival / New Talent
May 27, 2009 – Triangle Reading Event/Launch / Brown Williams Journal
September 24, 2008 – Creative Writing Reading Party Post Induction
Education
2011 – PhD Creative Writing, University of Glasgow
2004 – BA English, University of Alabama at Birmingham
2004 – BA Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham
1988 – Advanced Academic Diploma, Cullman High School
Conferences
June, 2012 – International Creative Writing Conference: Great Writing: 2012, ImperialCollege – accepted, didn’t attend.
April, 2010 – Creating Friction: An Interdisciplinary Creative-Practice Postgraduate Conference, NewcastleUniversity – accepted, didn’t attend.
June, 2010 – 13th Annual International Creative Writing Conference: Great Writing 2010, BangorUniversity – accepted, didn’t attend.
Teaching Experience
2008 – 2009 – University of Glasgow Undergraduate Creative Writing Workshop
Editorial Experience
December 2013 to Present – Managing Editor, Mulberry Fork Review
November, 2012 – Editor, The Last Word, Unbound Press and Spilling Ink Review Anthology
November, 2011 – Editor, Story.Book, Unbound Press and Spilling Ink Review Anthology
April, 2011 – Editor, Spilling Ink: Volume 1, Spilling Ink Review Anthology
November, 2010 – Co-Editor, By Invitation Only: Short Story Collection, Unbound Press
September, 2010 – Co-Editor, 50 Stories for Pakistan
May, 2010 – 2012 – Head Editor, Spilling Ink Review
January, 2010 – Co-Editor, 100 Stories for Haiti
January, 2009 – Editor of an anthology of poetry and prose by current University of Glasgow students
August, 2007 – Proofreader, Master’s Thesis on Effects of Facial Tissue After Acupuncture
January, 2007 – Ghostwriting anonymously / novel later published
January, 2007 – Editing/Private tutor
Literary Competition Results
Shortlisted Meridian Winter Writing Competition 2010
Runner-up Biscuit Flash Fiction Competition 2009
Hosted / Managed / Served as Judge – Literary Competitions
Spilling Ink Review 2009 – 2012 Competitions
Unbound Press 2009 – 2012 Competitions
Assistant Judge East Ayrshire Book Festival Fiction Competition