Awards & Honors

Sing, I, Finalist Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award, March, 2025 In the Event of Contact, Winner, Eric Hoffer Short Story Collection Award, April, 2022 In the Event of Contact, Finalist, Eric Hoffer Grand Prize, April, 2022 In the Event of Contact, Nominated, ZIBBY AWARDS, October, 2021 In the Event of Contact, Winner, Gold Independent Publisher Book (IPPY) Award for Best Regional Fiction: Europe, May, 2021
Longlisted, 2019 Fish Short Story Prize, March, 2020 Shortlisted, Disquiet Literary International Story Contest, March, 2020 Shortlisted, Writer in Residence, Leuven University, Centre for Irish Studies, Leuven, Belgium, February, 2020 Winner, 2019 Dzanc Book Prize. My short story collection, In the Event of Contact, will publish spring, 2021. Highly Commended, "Everywhere She Went," 2019 An Post Writing.ie Short Story of the Year Award
Winner, The Weight of Him, Northern California Publishers & Authors' (NCPA) Award, April, 2018 Winner, The Weight of Him, Nautilus Book Award, April 2018 The Weight of Him, KOBO's Best of Irish Fiction & Literature, April, 2018 The Weight of Him, Shortlist, The Reading Women's Fiction Award, November, 2017 Longlist, The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, February, 2017
Winner, Literary Death Match, September, 2016 Finalist, Literary Death Match Bookmark Contest, Judged by Daniel Handler, July, 2016 The Weight of Him, Winner of the Inaugural Plumeri Fellowship, May, 2016 Honorable Mention, The Masters Review Short Story Award, September, 2015 Whatever Doesn't Kill You, Silver Medal Winner, IPPY Independent Publisher Book Awards, May, 2015
Shortlist, Roberts Short Story Competition, April, 2015 Shortlist, CUIRT New Writing Prize, March, 2015 Juror, 2015 Litcamp Writers Conference, Selection Committee Associate Editor, Flash Fiction Int'l Anthology, W.W. Norton, 2015 Guest Editor, Smokelong Quarterly Magazine, September, 2014
Goodnight Nobody, Longlist, Edge Hill Prize, 2014 Juror, Selection Committee, LitCamp Writers' Conference, 2014 "Major Drill" Pushcart Prize Nomination, December, 2013 Winner, 2013 Bryan MacMahon Short Story Award, May, 2013 Nominated for San Francisco Foundation Literary Awards, May, 2013
Featured as 1 of 15 "Bay Area Literary Heroes," San Francisco Magazine, June, 2013 Fiction Judge, Burning River Press Chapbook Contest, Summer, 2013 The Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions of 2012, May, 2013 Fiction Judge, Writer's Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards, 2013 Juror, Selection Committee, LitCamp Writers' Conference, 2013
Residency, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Ireland, 2013 Judge, Literary Death Match, San Francisco, July, 2012 Shortlist, Anam Cara Short Story Competition, August, 2012, Commendation from Christine Dwyer Hickey in Moth Altun Short Story Prize, "Two Moons," May, 2012 Winner, Portuguese Writers' Colony Live Writing Contest, May, 2012
Shortlist, Bristol Short Story Prize, 2012 Winner, Tin House Plotto Contest, May, 2012 Semi-Finalist, Rose Metal Press Sixth Chapbook Contest, January, 2012 Bristol Short Story Prize, 2011, Longlist Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions, 2011, Longlist
Cut Through the Bone, Longlist, Frank O'Connor Int'l Short Story Award, 2011 Cut Through the Bone, Longlist, The Story Prize, 2010 Guest Editor, Smokelong Quarterly Magazine, May, 2010 Writer in Residence, Necessary Fiction, March, 2010 Winner, PANK Little Books contest, 2010
Winner, 30 Day Writing Regimen, Southeast Review Online, 2010 Third Eye Commentary, Founding Review, August, 2009 PANK, Runner-up, First Annual Chapbook Contest, 2009 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award, Judged by Richard Ford, Longlist, 2009 Fish Publishing One Page Story Prize, Longlist, 2009
Bartleby Snopes Magazine, Story of the Month, May, 2009 Mills College Alumni Graduate Merit Scholarship, 2002-2004 Mills College Academic Honors List, 1998-2004 Writer's Colony Dairy Hollow, Residency, Arkansas, 2003 Mills College Dean's Undergraduate Merit Scholarship, 1998-2002
Winner, Marion Hood Boess Haworth Prize, Young Adult Fiction, 2002 Ardella Mills Prize, Second Place, Non-Fiction, 2002 Winner, Ardella Mills Prize, Fiction, 2001