About
My first novel, The Ally, is scheduled to be released in late 2027. It's a social satire about a white civil rights attorney struggling under the weight of his own woke ideals to the point where he decides the best thing he can do is declare to the world that he's racist. As a civil rights lawyer and knee-jerk liberal, I spend a lot of time overanalyzing what it means to be a good ally. I’ve written on social justice in comedy routines, campaign speeches, and for legal publications. This is my first novel. The idea came to me during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in summer 2020, while wrestling with similar feelings as my protagonist (but never taking it that far). I want to give White readers a chance to laugh at themselves, make them feel a little uncomfortable, and elicit fresh perspective.
Featured Work
The Ally
The Ally is upmarket fiction about a fervent, White civil rights attorney driven to the point of declaring that he is racist. It mixes social satire like that of Colored Television by Danzy Senna with a well-intentioned anti-hero like in Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar.
At the memorial for his grandfather in rural Georgia, Ethan Wallin is moved to announce to the gathering that he’ll never be racist like Grandad. His dad bets him he’ll fail. Taking himself seriously, Ethan ditches his corporate law firm in Boston and goes all-in with a scrappy civil rights organization, but when his moment to speak truth to power arrives, Ethan clams up. All the while, his marriage is unraveling, the country is rocked by repeated police violence, a local synagogue is attacked, and Ethan’s handyman, Alejandro, is detained by ICE in front of him.
Convinced his existence amounts to nothing more than perpetuating White supremacy, Ethan is ready to admit defeat. In a dark house in the depths of insomnia, he irons letters onto a T-shirt that say “I’m racist,” planning to take a photo for his dad. Upon seeing his creation though, Ethan’s fervor returns. Could wearing the shirt in public be an ingenious stunt that shakes America awake to systemic racism? Stuffed in his gym bag, the shirt becomes a siren beckoning Ethan with promises of disruption and liberation from guilt. But if he wants to be any good to Alejandro and salvage his marriage, Ethan will have to figure out who he is other than a millennial wielding an ironic t-shirt.
