PURGATORY, ILLINOIS is the story of three queer millennials whose feelings for one another overlap and oscillate across an increasingly messy decade. Complete at 95,000 words, PURGATORY, ILLINOIS is a work of literary fiction that blends the relationship complexity of Oisín McKenna’s EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS with the sharp storytelling and sensuality of Erin Somers’ THE TEN YEAR AFFAIR.

After years trying to escape emotional purgatory, Jackie makes a determination: She’s incapable of real love and happiness. She’s resigned to a life spent waiting for the end, much like her recently deceased father. To save her partner Allie from this bleak future, Jackie leaves him—sort of. She refuses to speak, and he refuses to leave, but what Jackie considers a sacrifice that will give everyone the life they deserve is instead the catalyst for a summer of denial, desire, and (hopefully) salvation.

Alone with his thoughts for the first time in a decade, Allie teeters on the line of self-love and self-hate. He’s uncomfortable with sex, his identity, and his place in the world, and though he never stops talking, there’s a lot he’s never said. While Jackie avoids, Allie begs, yearns, and fantasizes, until Jackie’s silence finally conjures the words they’ve both swallowed for years.

And through it all, there’s chronically lonely Michael, who spends his time managing a punk bar and mismanaging his feelings for Jackie and Allie. With this tenuous breakup looming, Michael is caught between fear and longing. He’s never been the guy who gets what he wants, but he must ask himself now what (and who) he’s willing to risk for his own chance at happiness.

I was a finalist for a 2025 Colorado Gold Rush Literary Award in the Mainstream/Literary category, and I’m a member of Pikes Peak Writers in my hometown of Colorado Springs. I hold a bachelor’s in Writing & Rhetoric as well as a master’s in Communications. This would be my first published work.