Early Work

Sixteen pieces of non-fiction written between 1996 and 2003, in the order they were written — from a manifesto composed at seventeen to an essay written through one night at twenty-four. They are printed as they were written. I have not corrected the arguments I no longer hold, and there are several. A note before you begin. Some of this was written from inside a bad time, and the last piece in particular was written very close to the edge of one. Two of them name real people whose names I have changed, and say so where they do. ...

Twenty-three pieces of fiction, written between 1990 and 2003 and arranged in the order they were written. There is a nine-year silence in the middle of them; the Army is in that gap. They are printed as they were written. The fragments are still fragments — one of them stops mid-story — and I have left them that way rather than finish them now on their behalf. A note before you begin. Several of these are violent, and one is sexually explicit. The earliest was written at eleven and the last at twenty-four, and I have not softened any of them. ...

Forty-five poems written between 1992 and 2015, arranged by era. Part I · The High School Era (1992–1996) “SANCTUARY” AND “ELEMENTARY SCHOOL” MEDLEY I remember a place, a fine place gone. Away from it all, lost in time. Safe, warm, and happy den, How I wish I was back there then. I remember a time, the happiest days of my life. When all was right, and the sun was bright. Precious, free, and ambitious youth— “Under your pillow with that tooth!” ...