Gene’s fiction has appeared in various literary journals, including CutBank, Southern Indiana Review, LIT Magazine, Rattling Wall, and others. He graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing degree from the University of Central Florida.

• Nominated for the Pushcart Prize XLVII for work published in 2021.

• Nominated for Braddock Avenue Books 2019 Best Small Fictions prize

• Twice a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Family Matters prize

• Finalist in Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open prize

• 2017 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference

• 2010 Sirenland Writers’ Conference

He attended Bread Loaf 2017, where he studied under Lauren Groff. Hey, look: there he is at the Bread Loaf campus.

He attended the Sirenland Writers’ Conference in 2010, where he studied under Dani Shapiro and workshopped stories in meeting rooms like the one in the photo below. Which was pretty nice.

Here are just some of the books and authors that, at first, make Gene insanely jealous and then, after the jealousy dissipates, inspire him. Ultimately they make Gene a better writer.