Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

Consider the arc of this old corny joke, usually attributed to Groucho: “Why should I care about posterity, what’s posterity ever done for me?” It has an enviable balance – premise and reversal, a mirrored cadence, part statement and part question, equally funny and tragic. Posterity has of course been on my mind lately. Amid catastrophic climate change, seismic economic upheaval, and rising global authoritarianism, it’s becoming more challenging to navigate an increasingly disorienting and absurd present. What comes next? I appreciate writing that asks: Are we circling the drain? I hope we aren’t, but I think meditating upon the question is essential, especially if we want the answer to be no. I gravitate towards and want to create short stories that pose similarly brutal questions, though they present in the form of sacred jokes that are bone dry.

While At Headlands

My focus at Headlands will be completing a novel of interconnected stories that deal thematically with contemporary environmental questions and our relationship with nature in the Anthropocene. I am thrilled to pursue this project specifically at Headlands — amidst the beauty of Marin, in close proximity to Silicon Valley and its role as progenitor of so much environmental impact, and as part of the unparalleled community of artists from various disciplines that the center brings together.