Reading Room

de•crypt•ed—Elison on Matheson

My essay on Hell House by Richard Matheson, in Nightmare magazine. 

Ode to a Grocery Store Sandwich

From Sarah Gailey's Personal Canons Cookbook: my ode to a simple thing. 

The Dark
My Freudian horror story, "The Little God of the Staircase."
Uncanny Magazine Editorials
As editor of Uncanny Magazine, I wrote a collection of editorials focused on the writing of the body in speculative fiction.
Fantasy Magazine

My essay on Beverly Marsh, and Stephen King's female characters in general. 

Tiny Nightmares

A collection of the finest in flash horror! This collection, edited by Nadxieli Nieto and Lincoln Michel, includes potent brief scares from authors like Stephen Graham Jones, Samantha Hunt, and yours truly. It was featured in Oprah magazine! Top of the world, Ma! 

Uncanny Magazine

A story about my complicated love of drag and my uncomplicated love of dresses. Also, fuck you Ernest Hemingway. 

Nightmare Magazine

My short horror story about Deaf and hearing roommates, and their video doorbell. 

Do Not Go Quietly: An Anthology of Defiance in Victory

I wrote a quietly creepy story about the spies in our houses, how they are always listening. And I still wrote victory for the queers. It's part of this 2019 collection

Star Trek

As Leia Organa is Space Mom, Lwaxana Troi is Space Aunt

Slate
My short story, "Safe Surrender" is part of the Future Tense series, a production of Slate, New America, and Arizona State university.
Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy

This 2019 text explores the interaction between science fiction and fantasy in literature, music, art, television, and film. I contributed articles on musician David Bowie and visual artist Moebius. 

Terraform

What if you went to space, but your body didn't?

Urban Crimes anthology

My story of an abortion provider going up against London's most notorious killer of women was included in this 2019 collection

The Writer's Book of Doubt

A collection on the way writers construct themselves, destroy themselves, and start all over again is a very good thing to have on your bookshelf. This book reprinted my essay "Revenge is A Hundred Dresses," which is an homage to a children's book about how we dress and how we are perceived. 

Lightspeed

A fantasy story about publishing, magic, and family. 

Catapult
Fantasy & Science Fiction

The best story I've ever written was published in this issue. It's about a girl who wakes up to find she's 350 feet tall. There's also an interview about it here

Shimmer Magazine

I have dreamed of a heaven for writers where we are woken for nothing but gentle praise. 

Terraform

Hysteria means the wandering womb. Think about it. 

McSweeney's

If women wrote men the way men write women, books would be a little different

Tor.com

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is the kind of book I want to shove into people’s hands like an overzealous missionary. 

Compelling Science Fiction

I wrote a story about personal trainers and what it means to have a body. 2016. 

Strange California

I wrote a story about the cursed town where I went to high school, and how nobody ever gets out. It was published in an anthology called Strange California in 2017. 

The Daily Californian

I was an editor and columnist at the Daily Californian from 2012-2014. This is the archive of my work there. 

Hardened Hearts 

I wrote a story for this 2017 anthology featuring tales of strange love about applying Asimov's laws to a dating profile. 

McSweeney's

Parody of Gilbert & Sullivan. Talkin' bout my generation. 

Liquid Imagination

This is a horror story about things only the fire can tell you. 

Empyreome Magazine

Good Days is a story about time and youth and how we spend it. 2017. 

Terraform

My story, "Portal," is about working retail and captivity and escape. 

Fair Observer

I wrote about the homeless people who shared my neighborhood in Oakland, back in 2014. 

Sanctuary

I write about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A lot. This show featured TV's first technopagan

7x7

I have some freelance articles from 2014 in this Bay Area mag. 

The London Reader

My story "The Debt" was included in this issue, about a rescue cat and the magic that all cats posses. 

Unbound Worlds

When The Book of Etta came out, I was thinking hard about one particular scene in The Handmaid's Tale. Let me tell you why

Bustle

Ugh I really thought it couldn't happen. What a time capsule of dread

Lit Hub

I stole my first diary. But I have kept one faithfully ever since. 

The Mary Sue

Writers of dystopian fiction do not want to be right. 

Electric Literature

I have read Gone With the Wind over 100 times. That's how long it took me to pull apart the mythology of whiteness in that book. 

McSweeney's

IKEA is not what it seems. 

Memoir Mixtape

Sandstorm by Darude is the song that never ends

Female First

Literally a 10 Things About Me meme that was actually published. 

The Establishment

This is the thing that has gotten me the most hate mail ever. It's about weight loss surgery, and being fat. 

Red Room Magazine

I published my first-ever horror story here. It's about YouTube stardom and the lengths people will go to to get it. I also have an interview in this issue. 

Fifty Years of Free Speech

I contributed to this nonfiction account of the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley. 

Alternate Lanes

I wrote a poem about riding the bus. Yep. 

From the Four-Chambered Heart

I wrote a short letter to Anais Nin. It's here

UC Berkeley Class of 2014

Speaking at my commencement was one of the best moments of my life. Watch me do it here