Most of the pieces below here are from my undergraduate creative writing portfolio "Before the Girl Fixes it All," which compiles my personal favorite written works during my four years at Wabash College. The other piece is a work of literary analysis primarily about Albert Camus' novel The Fall that I later presented at Wabash's "Celebration of Student Research and Creative Work" in early 2025. While no single work was named, these works helped me win the 2024 Ruth Margaret Farber and the 2025 Robert S. Edwards Awards at Wabash College's Awards Chapels.
Please note that each page only contains excerpts, not whole works.
"The Absolute Center of the Universe is in the Middle of Nowhere" is a memoir about the end of my baseball career, a trip to Greece, and learning how to live without something that defined most of my life.
"A Glimpse and Only Just" is a dramatic short story about a man who struggles to reconcile the image of his recently deceased ex-girlfriend as he hikes a trail that reminds him of her. One of my darker stories.
"All We Seem to Do is Talk About Sex" is a creative nonfiction essay that seeks to find how young men talk about and view sex, cheating, and fellow men as sexual competition. Combines personal analysis, anecdotes, and interviews.
"A Rather Grandiose Conclusion to A Quarter-Life Crisis" is a romantic short story about a short-lived college couple who break up once they graduate and then get together at a wedding years later. A personal favorite, and a still in-progress project. If you want to get a sense of my fiction, this is a good place to start.
"Romance as a (Sort of) Economy" is a creative nonfiction essay that humorously attempts to uncover how we determine the romantic value of people through unromantic, logical means. In short, a mathematician tries to solve romance through a proof. Probably the funniest thing I've ever written.
"Relatively Banal but Ultimately Irreconcilable Differences: Judgment and Punishment Through the Lens of Albert Camus' The Fall" is an essay that analyzes punishment, judgment, and how the two are used to create hierarchy. Parts philosophical and literary, this essay is the most cerebral example of my writing.