I’m that BIPOC, QUILTBAG+, Buddhist book coach and speculative fiction author who helps other systemically oppressed storytellers win the publishing game.
But first, who might you be?
If you’re new here and need some clarity while navigating my website, please choose the option that bests describes you below.
I’m a budding creative writer who wants to connect with other writers and build solid writing habits.
I’m an emerging creative writer who wants to learn how to plan, polish, and pitch my novel for publication.
I’m a working creative writer and/or educator who wants to decolonize their pedagogy and lead my community.
I’m a veteran creative writer who wants a second pair of eyes for their novel to solve a more complex problem.
Otherwise, does any of this sound familiar?
You were shocked to learn that over 70% of people working in publishing identify as white*.
You’ve been made to feel othered in your creative writing workshops or writing groups.
You were once told that your writing is beautiful, but it doesn’t quite make sense.
You’ve been rejected from multiple writing, editing, and teaching jobs.
You were banned from writing genre fiction for school assignments.
You were told that writing novels doesn’t make “real” money.
* This stat comes from Lee and Low’s Diversity Baseline Survey.
All the above happened to me, and I’m willing to bet it happened to you, too.
Because I know you’ve worked hard to be as good of a writer as you are right now. You’ve read all the books, written in all those journals, and you’ve made it to the big leagues—an MFA program or a prestigious creative writing workshop, maybe.
And yet, you’ve been forced to sit in silence while your writing is being ripped to shreds. You’re told that you can’t write speculative or genre fiction because it's not sophisticated and beautiful like literary fiction is.
Maybe even after you've graduated from college or that MFA program, you fear that you'll never be able to write the stories you actually want to write. You have to water them down or maybe whitewash them. You face burnout that keeps you from finishing any writing in the first place.
You can't stand the thought of selling out, but what else can you do? It's their game, so that would mean you have to play by their rules, right?
Nope. Absolutely not.
Because, here’s the thing about being a systemically oppressed storyteller.
For far too long, both academia and the publishing industry have excluded marginalized voices in speculative fiction and other genres from the greater conversations we should be having about them and their work at large. They are punished for pursuing what they love, and they’re made to feel like they have to choose between assimilation or forever suffering in silence.
I am especially compelled to be a book coach for systemically oppressed storytellers of speculative fiction like myself because I know exactly what it’s like to be disconnected from one’s literary and cultural heritage and to have to pick up the pieces when no one else will. I know what it’s like to be told that I’m a square peg in a round hole even though the system was designed to set me up to fail from the beginning.
Our voices matter.
Our stories matter.
Yet at every turn,
we’re silenced.
Your creative writing teachers in academia have failed you because they refuse to decolonize their pedagogy and wish to maintain the inequitable, Eurocentric status quo.
The publishing industry hasn't been decolonized either because they only want stories that they know they can sell and exploit for profit, not just stories from “new” and “emerging” voices.
You deserve to tell the story you want to tell without sacrificing your identity and your creative spark—without selling out and being miserable.
And you deserve to learn how to foster future communities of writers without having to get an MA, MFA, or PhD from an institution that promotes colonization and assimilation, if you so choose.
I mean, sure.
You could write a “sell-out” book and maybe get rich.
You could also get an MA, an MFA (like I did), and/or a PhD. That’s totally up to you, and I don’t judge people who do.
But would you be happy if you did?
I don’t think you’d be happy.
Because I know how much you love storytelling.
I see how important it is for you to honor your voice.
I understand how much it means for you to help others.
Your brilliance, hard work, and determination—It's in every systemically oppressed storyteller of speculative fiction and beyond who has been censored, stifled, and pushed out of a world that wasn’t designed for them in mind.
That’s why through anti-racist pedagogy, equitable feedback methods, mindfulness principles, and recontextualization of creative writing education, I help my clients not only plan, polish, and pitch their novels.
I also help them become more confident within their own communities so that they might become stewards of future storytellers when facilitating writing workshops.
So, why not work with someone who sees you for the amazing person you really are?
Someone that's going to embrace you instead of silence you?
Someone that's going to encourage you instead of stifle you?
Someone that's going to empower you instead of segregate you?
Think we’re a good fit?
Still feels like too much?
Here’s some free stuff to check out:
Read my blog.
Listen to my podcast.
Watch my videos.