I welcome inquiries for engagements (paid and/or with bookselling opportunity) to come speak at your college, university, community organization, nonprofit, book festival, and more, either in person or virtually. I have experience delivering craft talks and lectures as well as facilitating workshops and conducting Q & A sessions with diverse communities.
Please reach out to open up a conversation.
topics of Expertise
Fiction writing craft (experimental points of view in fiction, writing the short story, putting together a short story collection, writing a first person voice, how to embrace uncertainty and begin a novel)
Nonfiction writing craft (writing nonfiction that mixes modes, writing cultural criticism & book reviews, writing the essay, how to write a book proposal)
Writing about diverse bodies in fiction and nonfiction; fat liberation and fatphobia in the literary world
Writing queer fiction, the state of queer literature post 2016, how queer virtuousness is sometimes positioned as the “new morality” in contemporary fiction
Being a Jewish writer writing against & beyond Zionism
Marketing yourself as a writer (how to position yourself in the current marketplace, how to use TikTok for your literary novel, how to build a presence on Substack)
How to start a community-based literary center like the one I co-founded in Philly, the importance of literary community
The writer Grace Paley and the ever-increasing relevance of her work in writing and activism.
Recent Speaking engagements
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA | November 2022
Reading from The Third Rainbow Girl
Q&A
Antioch University, Los Angeles, CA | June 2024
Reading from Housemates
Craft Talk, “Where Are All The Fat People in Fiction?”
Tin House Summer Workshop, Portland, OR | July 2024
Reading from Housemates
Nonfiction Workshop Instruction
Craft Talk, “Where Are All The Fat People in Fiction?”
Booksigning
Rutgers Writers House, Camden, NJ | September 2024
Reading from Housemates
Q & A with MFA program & community
Booksigning
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA | October 2024
Reading from Housemates
Q & A with MFA program & community
Holy Family University, Philadelphia, PA | October 2024
Distinguished Visiting Writers Series
Reading from Housemates
Q & A
Booksigning
Haverford College, Haverford, PA | October 2024
Distinguished Visiting Writers Series
Reading from Housemates
Undergraduate class visit, Fiction Writing
Q & A with aspiring student writers
Lebanon Valley College, Annville, PA | November 2024
Distinguished Visiting Writers Series
Reading from Housemates
Q & A
Craft Talk, “POV in Fiction: Who Sees & Who Speaks?”
Florida Atlantic University, Delray Beach, FL | November 2024
Craft Talk, “The Strange Art of the Nonfiction Book Proposal”
Q & A with MFA program
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA | November 2024
Undergraduate class visit, Jewish studies
Lunch with LGBTQ students
Miami Book Fair, Miami FL | November 2024
Panelist, “Coming Of Age & Coming Out: Queer Fiction & Memoir”
Booksigning
American Association of Writers and Writers Programs (AWP) | March 2025
Panelist, “Diasporic Dreaming: Jewish Writers on Anti-Zionist Possibility”
Panelist, “Big & Bodied: Writing Against Fatphobia”
University of Pennsylvania/Kelly Writer's House, Philadelphia PA | April 2025
Reading from Housemates
Booksigning
Amherst College, Amherst, MA | April 2025
Reading from Housemates
Undergraduate class visit
Booksigning
Disquiet Literary Conference, Lisbon | Portugal, June 2025
“Move Me: Writing the Essay” workshop instruction
Reading from Housemates