That was before I could speak English fluently, and before I knew how to see the story in a lived experience. My writing matured with me, like a pair of shoes your mom buys a few sizes too big; I grew into it, and it softened around me. For ten years, I documented my childhood in the form of make-believe, getting closer to what I really meant and who I really was with every story.

I write prose and poetry of any coming-of-age experience—from any episode of life, since we are constantly coming of age—because my favorite stories were the ones that helped you realize who you were and what you went through. Even when they were stories of other people, other timelines, other stratospheres.

Whether it’s in erratic free verse or fantasy plot lines or mundane contemporary settings, I write to create the same experience.