2023 Winner, Paris Book Festival for Forest for the Trees & Other Stories
2023 Pushcart Prize Nomination for “This Would Not Fit on the Bumper Sticker” from Wigleaf
2023 Launch Pad Prose Writing Competition, Top Ten
2023 Best Microfiction Winner
2023 Short Story Today Microfiction Contest Winner
2022 Princemere Poetry Prize, Honorable Mention
2022 Finalist for London Independent Story Prize for Flash Fiction
2022 Pushcart Prize Nomination for “The Clearing” from Hidden Peak Press
2022 Pushcart Prize Nomination for “Love in Exam Room C” from miniskirt magazine
2022 Best Microfiction Nomination for “Warmer Water” from Flash Frog
2022 Best Microfiction Nomination for “I Took a Trip” from Ran Off With the Star Bassoon
2022 Portland Screenplay Awards, Quarterfinalist for Every Good Boy Does Fine
2021 Atlanta Screenplay Awards, Quarterfinalist for Every Good Boy Does Fine
2021 Los Angeles Book Festival, Winner for Heaven and Other Zip Codes
2021 New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention for Heaven and Other Zip Codes
2021 Paris Book Festival, Honorable Mention for Heaven and Other Zip Codes
2021 Filmmatic Short Screenplay Awards, Quarterfinalist for Every Good Boy Does Fine
2020 Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention for Catacombs of the Heart
2020 Los Angeles International Screenwriting Awards, Semi-Finalist for Somewhere Outside of Lincoln
2020 Adelaide Literary Award, Finalist for “The Things We Tell Ourselves”
2018 Caldecott Medal Nomination for The (Underappreciated) Life of Humphrey Hawley
2018 Newbery Award Nomination for The (Underappreciated) Life of Humphrey Hawley
2018 Geisel Award Nomination for The (Underappreciated) Life of Humphrey Hawley
2017 New England Book Festival Winner for May I Have This Dance?
2017 New York Book Festival Honorable Mention for May I Have This Dance?
2017 Paris Book Festival, Honorable Mention for Loss Angeles
2016 Loss Angeles: Best Book Award, Finalist for Short-Story Fiction
2016 Loss Angeles: International Book Award, Finalist for Short-Story Fiction
2016 Loss Angeles: London Book Festival, Honorable Mention
2016 Loss Angeles: Hollywood Book Festival, Honorable Mention
2016 Loss Angeles: New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention
2016 Judge of Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Prize for Short Fiction
2015 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest, Finalist
2014 Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Short Story Award, Finalist
2014 Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Short Story Award, Honorable Mention
2014 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award, Finalist
Shakespeare Award for Poetry, Winner, presented by Torrance Consortium of the Arts, 2014
“The Clearing” selected as a 2014 Phoebe Winter Fiction Contest Finalist, Judged by Benjamin Percy
“The Father” selected as a 2013 New Rivers Press American Fiction Prize Finalist—and anthology winner of a Midwest Book Award in 2015
“From the Window” selected as a 2013 Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction Finalist
“You’re with Me” selected as a 2013 Northwind Short Story Honorable Mention
“Over the Bridge” selected as the winner of the 2012 Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction
“Dark Timber” selected as honorable mention in the 2012 Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction
“One-Night Stand” selected as honorable mention in the 2012 Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction
Weekly Artists’ Featured Writer on the Month, June 2012
“Zorba’s” selected as 2010 Glimmer Train Short Story Award Finalist
Founding Board Member of the Short Story Writers Association