Department of English

Sky (Hyper-Chlorinated) is a collection of short stories rooted in the geography of Los Angeles and inspired in part by Didion’s classic California essay collection, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. I’ve pulled inspiration from my own experiences and observations growing up in the city, where I’ve frequently walked, and relied on public transportation to get around. I’ve also drawn upon the work of urban theorists, Mike Davis and Edward Soja specifically, whose scientific analyses of the interplay between LA’s geography, its people, and its myths have provided both grounding and fuel for my writing. These five short stories are imperfect glimpses of several different sides of Los Angeles (and one takes place in Pasadena), all of them focused on characters whose fraught interactions with their geographic environments are catalysts for potent self-realizations, as they try to make sense of the (often fragmented) world around them.