“Slab City”

“My name could be Bonnie or Maggie or Sharon. The name’s not important, but the bike is. It’s a Harley, the kind you always dreamed of getting if you could have sold the house that went to your ex-wife . . .”

A Capella Zoo, 2009.

Ardella Mills Prize for Graduate Fiction, 2006; nominated for a Pushcart Prize, 2009.

“Meet the Mom who Stopped Joseph Kony”

“How Shannon Sedgwick Davis helped dismantle the Ugandan warlord's reign of terror.”

Non-fiction, Christianity Today, February 2015.

“Touched”

“I like art that reaches down my throat and squeezes my breath with commanding fingers. I like writing that makes my chest pound, my face flush. I like being nervous about what people will see when they read my work.”

Creative nonfiction.
Cricket Online Review, Spring 2006

“The Wayzata Way”

"When a goal takes you away from the present moment and creates anxiety, it becomes an albatross around your neck," Emmans says. "We're always telling them not to overthink racing.”

Runners’ World, December 2014

“Chased by the Muse”

“We lay beside strangers, 150 light bulbs radiating heat. The power flickers and the air conditioner stutters to a stop, like the building exhaling its final breath.”

Creative nonfiction. Hobart Magazine, summer 2015.

“Ruined for the Better”

“Manila rattles and roars with the energy of 20 million people hustling to get by, stray dogs and roosters roaming the streets, jam-packed jeepneys careening through traffic, acres of tin-roof-and-cinderblock slums and the smell of grilled intestines competing with diesel fumes in the dense, sweaty air.”

Nonfiction, Converge Worldwide Point, winter 2012