"BLISs"

“Loving each other was like living in a dream world where all of the walls were mirrors and the sky was a mirror and the birds were the echo of our own cries.”

Short story. The Puritan: Issue 42. Summer 2018. 

When you fall in love, or at least in the kind of love I was thinking of while writing this story, you start to think about building a life with that person. You think about the future, maybe kids, or at least of carving out a space in this world that is entirely yours together, and wrapped up in this idea of the future, is also an idea of the past, of what you'll leave behind. 

I was inspired to write this anxious, urban romance after attending a workshop on incorporating Indigenous texts, history, and culture into the classroom. I left feeling sad and shaken by the very real and horrific legacy of colonialism on this land. The question that wouldn't leave me was: how can you build a life on stolen land? Can you build a life on stolen land?

From there emerged a dreamy, idealistic couple. In love yet ridden with colonial and settler guilt, they try to negotiate their relationship to history, their city, and the land. But the ground they're on is shaky, unfamiliar, and not their own. 

Read the full story here.