"I wrote 'I Don't Think I'm Anything' when I was thirteen years old after just getting back from a hybrid residential and wilderness program to help with my mental health.

In the story's world, it's normal for people to be born with wings. There are several 'academies', with the one that Shaye was born at being the most prestigious, that raise a kind of super-soldier, raised from birth for use in the government's military, with those that don't make the cut going to work for private agencies.

Currently, as a writer, I am interested in exploring how our culture’s ideas of “villainy,” passed through literature and other forms of media, impact the way we criminalize and, in turn, dehumanize groups of people based on race, gender, and class.

"The Difference" is a poem I wrote to try and explain my emotions after a time when I made bad decisions, did bad things, and was what most would call a bad person.

The medium of the short story aligned with the feelings of this work. I wanted to convey in a moment, as ordinary as taking the subway, an experience thousands of working-class people have, familial pressures, dreams, and realities.

My piece focuses on acceptance centered around my racial identity.

When I first began writing "Run", it was for my Creative Writing class at school. I didn't know what I was going to write about at first, but I knew I wanted it to be dark and mysterious.

I go out sometimes into the everyday surroundings that I don't pay much attention to and I allow myself to associate words with them. Finding hidden associations and interesting metaphors is interesting to me. It's an odd sense of curiosity that asks me to explore every side of things that I see.

Winters in the bay are filled with quiet breezes and chilly months. The initial idea of my haibun arose during a rainstorm, while I was playing a Chopin nocturne on the piano with this particular coldness on my fingertips. Nocturnes by Chopin are generally expressive and dynamic, representing emotions from wistfulness to rage to sorrow.

This flippant, unconventional how-to fiction piece to not be awkward will be sure to guide you on an interesting journey. As one who is awkward I believe this is a pretty trustworthy source... maybe.

This free verse poem was written for my pure catharsis. I was angry at my friends for a situation none of us could control, and while I still felt like I had a right to be upset, my feeling of guilt was much larger and I questioned how I could even begin to be angry with them.

My piece “illusion” is a free-verse poem about being deceived by someone who is two-faced. When I wrote this poem, there was a person in my life who I found toxic and manipulative, however, everyone around them was unable to see them in the same light.

I am inspired by the natural world around me. I write my best poems when I'm hiking or exploring the woods. My work is influenced by Mary Oliver and Emily Dickinson.

When I first created these poems, I wanted the subject to be about the grief of womanhood that often accompanies changing yourself to fit others, as well as the restlessness that comes with this.

I wrote "Ascentomaniatic" as a response to seeing people give their lives to religion and let it twist them into something evil, all for the promise of eternal salvation. I decided on writing it as a sonnet so that I could use the voltas to show the descent into darkness of the people so obsessed with ascending to heaven, hence the title.

One of my greatest obstacles in life has been fighting for understanding. Whether it’s with myself or with others, about my identity or my mental health, it’s been a challenge. But I’ve suppressed all my emotions into writing.

"What Others Think" is based on my experience as a teen in today's society.

These are two poems I've written over the past couple months, I've wrote and changed these many times, changing words and scrapping fractions of them over and over. These poems attempt to share to subject of conversation, judging how it can be reduced to unnecessary sameness, or talking about anxiety around it.

Goodbye Again is a microfiction piece that explores loss, grief, and change. It reflects on the challenges of having a friend whose illness controls them, and the small things that one can do to show they matter.

“Thin” touches on the weighty topics of affection and eating. In this piece, I create a comparison between portions of food and portions of love.