Essays

Confessions of a Beauty Pageant Loser

An essay about my experience going undercover at the Miss Chinese International beauty pageant.

Writing Fan Fiction Gave Me Community and Creative Freedom

An essay about finding a writing community (and freedom from perfectionism) online.

Mulan: Badass Warrior or Devoted Daughter?

An essay about the irony and appropriation of China’s woman warrior.

My Dad Is Chronically Ill & It Makes Dating Complicated

An essay about navigating dating and grieving.

Lonely in the City

An essay about learning to love a patient, as a patient.

Second place winner for the University of Pennsylvania Gibson Peacock Creative Nonfiction Prize.

Proactive Mourning

An essay about the intersections of art and mourning and my experiences working on a podcast exploring grief.

Illusions

An essay examining chronic illness and body image

Pavlov’s People

An essay on caregiving and parenting

Becoming a Member of the Sick Parents Society

An essay about my experience apprenticing for a podcast that explores the nuances of parental loss, while having a sick parent myself.

On Gratitude and Grieving

An essay about lessons learned on the eve of a remission and recovery.

The ‘What If’ Conundrum: Leaving that Mentality behind at Graduation

A senior column saying goodbye to all that (and undergrad)

Maybe Being a Starving Artist Wasn’t So Sexy After All

An op-ed about growing up and the age-old question of passion versus pension. Do we really have to make a choice so rapidly?

Eulogy for the Living

An essay about a father’s diagnosis and a daughter’s regret

Second place winner in the Columbia Gold Circle Awards for “First person experience”

Finding Love in the Community After Loss

An essay examining the different kinds of love we let into our lives after loss.

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