My short story “Trees” is having a really good week! Last Thursday, it was the grand prize winner in ScreenCraft’s 2023 Cinematic Short Story Competition. Before that, it was among the 50 pages of my unpublished novel that helped it become the book winner of Launch Pad’s 6th Annual Prose Writing Competition.

This morning, I got an email that it’s going to be published in the New American Studies Journal, in a special issue exploring women and service in the 19th century, including issues involving women and gender roles, race, class, and wealth. The journal usually only publishes academic papers, but for this special issue, they’re exploring the topic in both academic articles and creative work, including short stories, poetry, artwork, audio work, videography, and photography. I minored in history at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and love studying history, especially California history. And now, my dream of being published in an academic history journal is coming true, without all the footnotes, annotated bibliography entries, and peer review hurdles. 🙂

I’m so happy this story found such an amazing home and can’t wait to see it in print.