about me:
I am usually in the midwest, splitting much of my time between writing and teaching. My education is spread across a dozen schools; public, private, rural and urban. In my first year at university, one of my professors slipped me into a graduate class by a novelist-in-residence who advised me to study film, which was my not-so-secret dream.
Five years after that encounter, I graduated with a double BFA in Filmmaking and Creative Writing at KCAI and some modest production experience. In the intervening years I have written several books, screenplays, and workshops including Real Boy (2015), Delta Phi (2017) and Epidural (2022). My MFA (Screenwriting) is from the School of Cinematic Arts at USC.
For some time I created web content about writing, journaling, film and metafiction. I regularly teach filmmaking and screenwriting at the college level. I’m also a contributor for a Kansas City based newspaper, The Object (only available in print), and recently published my second novel, The Fox and The Stag.
In the wake of generative AI I have privatized my artistic process—I no longer make content and my most recent film, while screened locally, is not publicly available. While I am steadily working on my next novel, I practice music and painting and have re-focused on sharing my work in local, in person settings.
Some know me as the writer who talks to fictional characters, and that is also true—I have been unable to break most of the ever-lowering ceiling of my field, but I’m still kicking away at walls.
Credentials below.
photo by Hannah Novinger
/ EDUCATION
2022 / MFA, University of Southern California, CA_Screenwriting
2017 / BFA Double Major, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO_Filmmaking/Creative Writing
2011 / Credit Courses from University of Chicago & Truman State University: Creative Writing
/ AWARDS
2025 / Finish Line Script Semifinalist for screenplay “Epidural”
/ Filmmatic Short Screenplay Semifinalist for “Vegas Girl”
2024 / Screencraft Sci-Fi & Fantasy Screenwriting Competition Quarterfinalist, “Chrysalis”
CS Unique Voices Semifinalist for screenplay “Epidural”
Finalist in WIFM & KC FilmFest International Short Screenplay Competition for “Vegas Girl”
Emerging Screenwriters Sci Fi & Fantasy Quarterfinalist for “Chrysalis”
2023 / Creative Screenwriting Quarterfinalist for “Chrysalis”
2022 / Slamdance Semifinalist for screenplay “Epidural”
2021 / ISF Alum
2019 / AMCLI Fellowship
2017 / Regional Emmy Nomination
2017 / Indie Gathering International Film Festival Award Winning Film/
Vancouver Filmdance Pre-selection
/ PUBLICATIONS
2025 / Dearest—fiction (The Object)
2024 / The Fox and The Stag-Novel
Interview with the Unreal–Experimental fiction (The Object)
2022 / Apocalyptic Fantasy–Prose poem (Out of the Darkness, Into the Light: WWKC Anthology)
2020 / Forgetting 9/11--short fiction (Storymaker)
2018 / Paint-Novel
2014 / A Birthday Card.--Commercial Product
Dust to Dust--Short fiction (Kawsmouth)
/ FILMOGRAPHY
2019 / Building America (PA, Phipper Films)
Burnt Ends (Talent, Rondevu Pictures)
2017 / Delta Phi (Writer/Director)
2016 / Real Boy, an Allegory (Writer/Director)
Beyond Belief (Intern/PA, PBS)
2015 / Boy Found In (Writer/Director)
Vigil (Producer/Director)
So What Are You About (Director)
2014 / Fearsome Pole (Writer/Director)
Perimeter (Writer/Director)
Dictum (Writer/Director)
2013 / Novelist (Writer/Director)
/ SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2025 / Once Upon This Time-(Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature)
2024 / Interview on The Poetry Podcast with A
2023 / Searching the Psyche Through Cinema: Blade Runner (KCL)
2022 / Beatnik Cafe
2019 / Radio appearance about metafiction-(KKFI 90.1)
2018 / Five Steps to Writing Compelling Characters-(Johnson County Library Writer’s Conference)
Work/Write Balance panel-(Johnson County Library Writer’s Conference)
2017 / Five Steps to Writing Compelling Characters-(Kansas City Art Institute, Avila University)
Making Metafiction-(H&R Block Artspace)