Artist Statement
Generally, my work examines the tension between our desire for self-articulation and the commodification of the self; and how social conditions enforce a set of norms for how one “ought” to embody that self, whatever one’s personal or political intersections. I approach this by writing through the body: it is, after all, the site where these structures are internalized. The “I” is not simply a collection of categories — male, tall, straight, and so on — but rather, an expression of these internalized modes of being. In the case of my debut novel, Circumference, I examine this through the concept of America as a sports team, “a thing of ninety legs” as DeLillo puts it in his novel End Zone. I mean to investigate the pressure for men to embody certain kinds of masculinity — a "uniform" for certain American "players" — and the work it takes to resist this.
The stack of books here represents an (incomplete) example of some works that have been touchstones for my novel and that I consider myself in conversation with as a writer. Other writers and books not shown here include Anelise Chen (So Many Olympic Exertions), Don DeLillo (End Zone), Fanny Howe (The Needle's Eye), Joe Milan Jr. (The All-American), and Max Porter (Shy). The print in the background is an image from the photographer David R. Elliot's book I used to believe that I could be the next Larry Bird (Candor Arts).