Books
Were You Close? A sister’s quest to know the brother she lost
A successful radiologist and elite athlete, Dr. Dave tended to the blistered feet of strangers on race courses and gave many of his trophies away. He was known for his generosity and camaraderie with family, friends, colleagues, and adventure racing teammates, the latter of whom usually accompanied him on excursions. But he embarked on his final pursuit alone—an attempt to summit all 54 of the 14ers in Colorado—and made an unknowable error, falling 200 feet to his death.
When people learned that he had died, they often asked his sister, the only girl and baby of the family, “Were you close?” The question, seemingly simple at first, haunted her and begged for its own inquiry, a journey that took a decade. She invites the reader along on her own adventure as she searches for clarity about who her brother was, why his passions were worth risking everything, and how to live in the world and her family without him, ultimately becoming even closer to him in death than in life.
Were You Close? challenges the cultural notion that the bereaved should simply “get over” their losses, illustrating that integrating these experiences can actually help a mourner not just heal, but move forward with clarified purpose.
Anthologies
“Hugger” • The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink
“Antares” & “Stealth” • Vita Brevis Poetry Anthology Volume III, Winter 2021/22
“Blues” • Stone Gathering, Winter 2021-22
Essays
“The Compass” • The Keepthings
“Friends Like These” • The HerStories Project
“Heirlooms” • Farmer-ish print annual > PDF
“Humane” • Shooter Literary Magazine
“The Beautiful Mundane” • Lunch Ticket (runner up for Diana Woods Memorial Award)
“Survivor’s Debt” • Ars Medica
“The Hell of Book Proposal Writing” • Multiplicity Magazine
“Linus and B” • Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
“Higher, Farther, Faster” • Hippocampus Magazine
“Having a Dead Sibling is Full of Contradictions” • Modern Loss
“Words With Tommy” • Entropy Magazine
“A Cat Named Sam” • Write Angles Journal
“Memorial Park” • riverSedge Literary Journal, Volume 29, Issue 1
“Tell the Truth and Lie to Me” • Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies
“Congratulate Kim on Her Work Anniversary” • Modern Loss
Poems
“Blues” • “Beautiful Things” at River Teeth Journal
“Weigh Up” • Multiplicity Magazine
“For six days a goldfinch,” “Sound,” and “Tracks” • Eunoia Review
True Scrawl 