About Me
I was born in Washington, DC, in 1976, and grew up there apart from three very formative years spent in Sri Lanka. In 1999, I earned a BA in International Relations from Pitzer College, and then spent a brief spell as the token liberal at a think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. During that time, I lived in Ecuador. When I returned to the US in 2001 I quit writing for the think tank. I spent the next few years writing extremely bad fiction.
In 2004, I matriculated at the MFA creative writing program at the University of Washington. Another year of bad fiction ensued, but before I managed to quit, the buds of some decent writing finally sprouted. In my second and final year at the UW, I won the 2006 David Guterson Award for a thesis.
Since then, I have published short stories in Best New American Voices 2008, Conjunctions, Michigan Quarterly Review, Seattle Review, Phoebe, and Boston Review, where I won second place in the 2007 contest, judged by George Saunders. My stories have also won or been finalists in contests at New Letters, Florida Review, and Gulf Coast, and a story “Horizon” was named to the Best American Short Stories 2008 list of “100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2007.” A writer-in-residence at Seattle Arts and Lectures, and a two-time fellow of Yaddo, I won 2010 grants from The Elizabeth George Foundation, and Seattle CityArtist.
My first novel, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2011. I currently live in Seattle with my wife and our surly cat.
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About Me
I was born in Washington, DC, in 1976, and grew up there apart from three very formative years spent in Sri Lanka. In 1999, I earned a BA in International Relations from Pitzer College, and then spent a brief spell as the token liberal at a think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. During that time, I lived in Ecuador. When I returned to the US in 2001 I quit writing for the think tank. I spent the next few years writing extremely bad fiction.
In 2004, I matriculated at the MFA creative writing program at the University of Washington. Another year of bad fiction ensued, but before I managed to quit, the buds of some decent writing finally sprouted. In my second and final year at the UW, I won the 2006 David Guterson Award for a thesis.
Since then, I have published short stories in Best New American Voices 2008, Conjunctions, Michigan Quarterly Review, Seattle Review, Phoebe, and Boston Review, where I won second place in the 2007 contest, judged by George Saunders. My stories have also won or been finalists in contests at New Letters, Florida Review, and Gulf Coast, and a story “Horizon” was named to the Best American Short Stories 2008 list of “100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2007.” A writer-in-residence at Seattle Arts and Lectures, and a two-time fellow of Yaddo, I won 2010 grants from The Elizabeth George Foundation, and Seattle CityArtist.
My first novel, A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2011. I currently live in Seattle with my wife and our surly cat.
Connect