Publications (& Awards)

2024

“The Guy and the Missing Leg” first appeared in Matchbook Lit, December 16, 2024.

“The Guy I Dumped In The Iowa Cornfields On The Way To His Grandparents’ House” first appeared in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine, Issue 24, December 5, 2024.

“Let’s Go Holoholo” first appeared in Wigleaf, November 20, 2024.

“Dear Wigleaf” comic postcard first appeared in Wigleaf, November 20, 2024.

“The Coconut Crab Ate My Baby” first appeared in Tiny Molecules, Issue Twenty-One, Autumn 2024 (October 19, 2024).

Table Talk (Haneda Airport) first appeared in The Threepenny Review, Issue 179, Fall 2024.

"When the Obake Decides He’s Sick of Being a Monster and Would Rather Be the Tooth Fairy Instead" first appeared in Mothman Was Here: Tales of the Uncanny edited by William Woolfitt for Tenpenny Books, September 6, 2024.

Three Micros (“boys no wear flowers they stay wear maile,” “They Should Arrest All Them Mahus” and “‘Ula ‘Ula Means Red in Hawai’ian”) first appeared in Quarterly West, Issue 112, August 23, 2024.

“Blanket” first appeared in Wensum Literary Magazine, June 29, 2024.

“Or Better Yet” longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50, June 25, 2024. (First published in The Cincinnati Review miCRo series, July 19, 2023.)

“the mongooses of Pahala” longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50, June 25, 2024. (First published in The Rumpus, April 24, 2023.)

“Looking Out” first appeared in Vestal Review, Issue 64, June 15, 2024.

“Da Slippah” first appeared in National Flash Fiction Day’s Flash Flood, June 15, 2024. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“The Guy in the Redwood Water Tank” first appeared in Fractured Lit, June 13, 2024.

“Kuma” first appeared in Mythic Picnic, May 21, 2024.

“The Opihi Shell Necklace Hidden in My Mother’s Closet” first appeared in MicroLit Almanac, May 9, 2024.

“bitches be crazy, ain’t no thing as a free lunch, the man is out to get you” first appeared in Ghost Parachute, May 1, 2024.

“Desperately Seeking” first appeared in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine’s First Writing Contest, April 25, 2024.

“Paradise” first appeared in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine, March 21, 2024. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“‘86” first appeared in The Argyle Literary Magazine, March 15, 2024.

“Tita’s Sister’s Boyfriend” first appeared in The Argyle Literary Magazine, March 15, 2024.

“in the dark” first appeared in The Ilanot Review, Spring 2024, March 12, 2024.

“The Devil You Don’t Know” first appeared in The Ilanot Review, Spring 2024, March 12, 2024. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“So This Is Love” first appeared in The Mersey Review, March 10, 2024.

“Mondettes for February 2024” with Matt Kendrick, February 20, 2024.

“Sacrament” in Best Microfiction 2024 (first appeared in Craft, November 17, 2023), February 13, 2024.

“The Mote In God’s Eye” first appeared in LEON Literary Review, Issue 24, January 31, 2024.

“Regret” first appeared in Moon City Review 2024, January 2024.

“Just Chill Out, Okay” first appeared in Vast Chasm Magazine, Issue 24Q1, January 21, 2024. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“The Mongoose” first appeared in Hex Literary, January 9, 2024.

2023

“Skin and Bone” published in Best Small Fictions 2023, Alternating Current Press, December 12, 2023 (“Skin and Bone” first appeared in Astrolabe, December 21, 2022.)

“to da lady who stay looking down her high makamaka nose at us” first appeared in Pinch, Volume 13, November 17, 2023.

“Sacrament,” “Living on Stilts,” and “Oh my god your voice sounds so haole” first appeared in Craft, November 17, 2023. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“Cruising in Kona” first appeared in swamp pink, Issue 7, November 14, 2023.

“That Kind of Love” first appeared in Already Gone: 40 Stories of Running Away Anthology, Alan Squire Publishing, November 14, 2023.

“Or Better Yet” featured in Community of Literary Magazines and Presses’ A Reading List for Native American Heritage Month 2023, October 31, 2023. (First published in The Cincinnati Review miCRo series, July 19, 2023.)

“Stifling the Weeds” first appeared in ANMLY #37 :: Future Possible, October 31, 2023. (Best of the Net Nomination)

“Buttons” first appeared in The ASP Bulletin, Issue 7, October 30, 2023. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“Missing the Tampon Window” first appeared in Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness, ELJ Editions, October 27, 2023.

“Fire and Sea” first appeared in Fractured Lit’s BIPOC Bittersweet Love Story Anthology, October 23, 2023. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“Flexing My Creative Muscles: Training to Failure” first appeared in Wind & Root in Reckon Review, October 4, 2023.

“Trophies" and "Cookies" first appeared in Indiana Review, Summer 2023, Volume 45, Number 1.

“Far, Far Away” and “may day is lei day in Hawai’i” first appeared in Cream City Review, Spring/Summer Volume 47, Number 1.

“Lazy Days in a Tropical Haze” first appeared in Wind & Root in Reckon Review, August 9, 2023.

“Fantasy Island” first appeared in South Florida Poetry Journal, August 2023, Issue 30, July 31, 2023. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Pumpkin Swept Away By Typhoon Lupit” first appeared in New Flash Fiction Review, Issue 30, July 29, 2023 (Shortlisted for the New Flash Fiction Prize).

“Or Better Yet” first appeared in The Cincinnati Review miCRo series, July 19, 2023.

“Giving all the Aloha” first appeared in Ellipsis Zine, July 5, 2023.

“And Nothing Else To Do” first appeared in Flash Frog, June 26, 2023.

“Her Red Door Open” first appeared in National Flash Fiction Day’s Flash Flood, June 24, 2023.

“Menehune” first appeared in Gigantic Sequins, Issue 14 (June 2023).

Selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist on June 15, 2023 with “Relax Said the Nightman” which first appeared in Newfound, Volume no. 13, Issue 1, March 15, 2022.

Selected for Best Small Fictions 2023 on June 2, 2023 with “Skin and Bone” which first appeared in Astrolabe, December 21, 2022.

“Flexing My Creative Muscles: Video Game Edition” first appeared in Wind & Root in Reckon Review, May 24, 2023.

“They Would Have Told You” first appeared in Fractured Literary, May 1, 2023.

Rumpus Original Fiction: Six Micro Stories (“When the eye of Hurricane ‘Iwa is passing over us,” “Bitter over Sweet,” “go get da fish bat,” “daddy, he wen put limu in the fish’s belly,” “White wine spritzer,” & “the mongooses of Pahala”) first appeared in The Rumpus, April 24, 2023. (The O. Henry Prize Nomination)

“The Girl I Met at the Gay Bar” first appeared in A Valentine's Day Micro Fiction Sampler from the Short Story Today podcast, February 12, 2023.

“Tweezer” and “Of Being” were reprinted in Sugar Sugar Salt, February 3, 2023.

“Flexing My Creative Muscles: Running from Zombies, My Apple Watch Overlord, & My Health” first appeared in Wind & Root in Reckon Review, February 1, 2023.

2022

“Lose 10 Pounds in 3 Days” first appeared in Parentheses Journal, Issue 14, Fall 2022, December 31, 2022.

“Sweet Water” first appeared in Empty House, Issue Nine, December 29, 2022. (Best of the Net Nomination)

“Once Upon a Time in Hawaii” first appeared in Astrolabe, December 21, 2022.

“Skin and Bone” first appeared in Astrolabe, December 21, 2022. (Best Small Fictions 2023)

“Be Careful What You Wish For” first appeared in Trampset, December 9, 2022.

“‘Araby’ by James Joyce” in Scratch Classics, November 26, 2022.

“Exquisite Corpse of the Night Woman” first appeared in Harpy Hybrid Review, Issue #9, November 16, 2022. This work was created in collaboration with Cherry Lou Sy.

“Grogu Doesn't Need a Sippy Cup” first appeared in Cotton Xenomorph, November 1, 2022.

“Flexing My Creative Muscles: Playing the Ukulele, UAS, & 30-Day Challenges” first appeared in Wind & Root in Reckon Review, October 26, 2022.

“My Kuleana” was reprinted in One Wild Ride, October 20, 2022.

“Melissa Llanes Brownlee’s Reflection on Writing” about “My Kuleana” first appeared in One Wild Ride, October 20, 2022.

“Or Else “ first appeared in Five South, September 20, 2022. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“Wheel of Fortune” first appeared in Maudlin House, September 14, 2022.

“Doing the Laundry” first appeared in Fictive Dream, August 28, 2022.

“What if God Is One of Us” first appeared in Atlas + Alice, August 11, 2022. (Best Small Fictions Nomination)

“…and everything is okay once more” first appeared in Cobra Milk, Issue 3, Summer 2022, July 29, 2022.

“Flexing My Creative Muscles: Art Nights, Line Art, & Daily Doodles” first appeared in Wind & Root in Reckon Review, July 27, 2022.

“Mother’s Obake Shivers Under Your Bed” first appeared in Lost Balloon, July 13, 2022.

“Kona Boy Made Good” first appeared in Milk Candy Review, July 7, 2022.

“the graduation party you decided to skip” first appeared in The Citron Review, Summer Issue 2022, June 21, 2022.

“Fishing for Akule” selected for Wigleaf’s Top 50, June 19, 2022.

“Tita Wants” first appeared in National Flash Fiction Day’s The Write-In, June 19, 2022.

“A girl” first appeared in National Flash Fiction Day’s Flash Flood, June 18, 2022. (Best Small Fictions Nomination)

“Believe We Are Magic” reprinted in Syncopation Literary Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, June 17, 2022.

“The Reused Cool Whip Container” first appeared in Ruby Literary, Issue One, June 3, 2022. (Best Microfiction and Best American Short Stories Nomination)

“Playing with Fire” first appeared in The Razor, June 1, 2022. (Best Small Fictions Nomination)

“Talking Story about Language and Identity” first appeared in Mandira Pattnaik’s Blog/Craft Essays, May 30, 2022.

“Oceans under Threat Like Never Before” first appeared in Cheap Pop Lit, April 21, 2022. (Best Small Fictions Nomination)

“All Wisdom Is Not Taught in Your School” first appeared in The Hennepin Review, April 2022 Issue, March 31, 2022. (Best of the Net & Pushcart Nominations)

“Coming Home” first appeared in Reckon Review, March 21, 2022.

“in ache” first appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Issue Seventy-Five, March 21, 2022. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“Relax Said the Nightman” first appeared in Newfound, Volume no. 13, Issue 1, March 15, 2022. (Best of the Net Nomination)

“Crush” first appeared in Emerge Literary Journal, Issue 21, February 13, 2022.

“The Cannibalistic Sea Slug” first appeared in Anti-Heroin Chic, February 5, 2022.

Selected for Best Microfiction 2022 on January 25, 2022 with “She Has Lost Something Again” which first appeared in The Birdseed, Volume 1, Issue 1, July 31, 2021.

“Of Being” first appeared in jmww, January 20, 2022.

Third Place in the 2021 National Flash Fiction Day Novella-in-Flash, January 14, 2022.

2021

“Where the Ali’i Are Hidden“ first appeared in Brown Bag Online, Issue 4, December 21, 2021.

“As All Titas Do” first appeared in Brown Bag Online, Issue 4, December 21, 2021.

“Tweezer” first appeared in Red Fez, Issue 152, December 15, 2021.

“Party Like It’s 1999” first appeared in Voices of the Winter Solstice, December 2021, The Burning Hearth special edition, December 14, 2021.

“Open Up” first appeared in Splonk, Issue 6, December 1, 2021.

“Grover” first appeared in Versification Misfit Micros November 2021, December 1, 2021.

“Fishing for Akule” first appeared in Superstition Review, Issue 28, Fall 2021, November 30, 2021.

“The Lady in White” first appeared in Scrawl Place, November 15, 2021.

“Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?” first appeared in One Anthology to Rule Them All: LOTR Anthology, November 11, 2021.

“A Ghost under the Kitchen Sink” first appeared in (mac)ro(mic), November 5, 2021.

“Principles of Lust” first appeared in Rejection Letters, November 1, 2021.

“The Hermit Really Doesn’t Want to Be Alone” first appeared in Analogies & Allegories Literary Magazine, Issue 6, October 31, 2021.

“Mine” first appeared in trampset, October 29, 2021.

“You Should Never Eat Mangoes at Midnight” first appeared in Subliminal Magazine, Issue 2, October 23, 2021.

“Believe We Are Magic” first appeared in The News Station Lit, October 21, 2021.

“The Hard-Boiled Detective Agency” first appeared in A Coup of Owls, Issue 2, October 1, 2021.

“Tangerine Glow” first appeared in Paragraph Planet, September 28, 2021.

“The One Who Lies in Wait” first appeared in New Flash Fiction Review, September 27, 2021. (Best Small Fictions Nomination)

“The Warrior’s Heron” in response to Onabanjo of Itu Meko first appeared in The Ekphrastic Review’s Writing Challenge, September 24, 2021.

“Planted in Blue” first appeared in Bandit Fiction, September 12, 2021.

“I Got My First Real Sex Dream” first appeared in Rejection Letters, August 25, 2021.

“The Scarlet Witch Takes No Shit From Anyone” first appeared in The Daily Drunk, August 12, 2021.

“35mm” first appeared in Six Sentences, August 9, 2021.

“This Is Not Your Kind of Ghost Story” first appeared in Hungry Ghost Magazine, Issue One, Summer 2021.

“She Has Lost Something Again” first appeared in The Birdseed, Volume 1, Issue 1, July 31, 2021. (Best Microfiction 2022)

“Avon Calling You an Autumn When You Know You Are Summer” first appeared in Milk Candy Review, July 29, 2021. (Pushcart Prize Nomination)

“The Linebackers of Waikiki” first appeared in Necessary Fiction, July 21, 2021.

“How to Care for the Giant Hawaiian in Your Life” first appeared in Sledgehammer Literary Journal, July 9, 2021.

“The 30 Day Not Forgiving You Challenge” first appeared in Gastropoda Lit Mag, July 5, 2021.

“The Void We Cannot Fill” first appeared in Ellipsis Zine, Nine: Life Safari, July 2, 2021.

“Plan Our Escape” first appeared in CP Quarterly, Issue No. 12, Spring 2021, June 25, 2021.

“Superheroes Don’t Do That” first appeared in The Daily Drunk, June 21, 2021. (Best of the Net Nomination)

“The Black Box She’s Only Seen on TV” first appeared in Nostalgic AF: A Video Game Anthology, June 18, 2021.

“Is There a Difference Between Sex and Love?” first appeared in Paragraph Planet, June 18, 2021.

“The Helicopter Pilot Who Decided to Preach to Me about God on My Tour of the Grand Canyon” first appeared in CafeLitMagazine, June 17, 2021.

“For the Boy You Had a Crush on and Hoped Would be Under the Black Flap of Your Friend’s Paku Paku” first appeared in Complete Sentence, June 12, 2021.

“Holoholo” first appeared in Sledgehammer Literary Journal, June 6, 2021.

“The First Word” first appeared in Bright Flash Literary Review, June 2, 2021.

“This Is a Story About That Can of Tuna You Left on the Counter” first appeared in The Cabinet of Heed Literary Journal, Issue 47, June 1, 2021.

“Play It Again, Sam” first appeared in 3Elements Literary Review, Issue No 30, Spring 2021.

“Tributary” first appeared in (mac)ro(mic), April 21, 2021.

“The Day Captain Cook Missed Hawaii” first appeared in The Lumiere Review, Party Time Issue, April 14, 2021. (Best Microfiction Nomination)

“The 15 Lists to Add to Your Apocalypse Bullet Journal” first appeared in Bending Genres, Issue Twenty, April 6, 2021.

“Black Coral” first appeared in Claw & Blossom, Issue Eight, March 21, 2021.