Nonfiction

My blog Could This Happen? explores the relationship between science and science fiction.

I'm a staff writer at Giant Freakin Robot where you can find the latest science, tech, and sci-fi news.

I'm thrilled to announce that my collection of essays, Letters to Ray Bradbury, will be published by Pelekinesis in 2015.

• "Science Fiction and the Loss of Technology" Screen/Read (Nov 2014)
• “Why I Lied About My Age While Traveling,” Wherever Magazine (Issue 4, Fall 2014)
• "Almost Humane: What Sci-Fi Can Teach Us ABout Our Treatment of Prisoners of War" Slate (Oct 2014)
• "How We Colonize Mars Is More Important Than When" Slippage (Issue 3, Summer 2014)
• "Nothing To Worry About: On Living With Phobias" The Toast (July 2014)
• “Hockeytown” Praxis Magazine (April 2014)
• “The Most Terrifying Kids' Book” Slate (March 2014)
• “What My Cat Taught Me About Love” Praxis Magazine (March 2014)
• “Here’s How to Convince the Public That We Need to Invest in Space Exploration” Slate (Jan 2014)
• "Linked In, Tuned Out: Why Travelers Should Limit Their Tech" Clever Magazine (Dec 2013)
• "How About a Pop Culture Litmus Test?" The Toast (Nov 2013)
• "Your Belief Here" Killing the Buddha (Oct2013)
• "Isaac Asimov Would Love Pacific Rim's Robots" Slate (July 2013)
• I was recently on a blog talk radio show discussing artistic and emotional reinvention (July 2013)
• "The Art of Complaining" Praxis Magazine (July 2013)
• "What the Mind Forgets, the Body Remembers" Cognoscenti (June 2013)
• "Deliverance: A Holy Bus Journey to Bosnia" BootsnAll (June 2013)
• "How Farfetched Is the Clone Conspiracy on BBC America's Orphan Black?" Slate (March 2013)
• "What Would Aldous Huxley Say About Our Always-Connected Society?," Slate (Jan 2013)
• "A Sort of Homecoming," Barely South Review (Sept 2012)
• "Implanting Memories like in Total Recall: Could it Happen?" Slate (July 2012)
• "Could the Earth's Rotation Really Slow Down Like It Does in the New Novel The Age of Miracles?"Slate (June 2012)
• "Heartbrake," Praxis Magazine (April 2012)
• "Should've Known Better," Praxis Magazine (September 2011)
• "Gringo's Dilemma," Praxis Magazine (April 2011)
• "How I Spent My Free Will," Minnetonka Review (Winter 2011)
• "Finding Fathers," Ducts (Dec 2010)
• "Making Luck," (page 32-35) Paradigm (Sept 2010)
• "The War and the Roses," Guernica (Feb 2010)
• "Letters to Ray Bradbury," Konundrum (Sept 2009)
• "Tiny Spirits in Paradise," Sonic Clash (Sept 2009)
• "Fighting the Sunday Blues with Albert Camus," Briarpatch (Sept 2009)
• "Always Something There to Remind Me," Sonic Clash (July 2009)
• "Boogie Wonderland," Sonic Clash (July 2009)
• "The New Pink,"Sonic Clash (June 2009)
• "Nothing Like It Was In My Room," Sonic Clash (May 2009)
• "The More Things Change," Sonic Clash (May 2009)
• "Who Stole Thievery?" Sonic Clash (March 2009)
• "Dear Radiohead," Sonic Clash (Feb 2009)
• "Electroshock to the Soul," Cause and Effect (Summer 2008)
• "Learning How to Learn," ArtsBeat Faculty Newsletter (2005)
• "Digitization of First Nations Artifacts," ArtsBeat Faculty Newsletter (2005)
• "Travelling to Uruguay," Zink Magazine (2005)

     Fiction/flash fiction

• "Falling Short," Northwind Magazine (April 2012)
• I Went to Psychotherapy and All I Got was This Lousy T-Shirt," Defenestration (Sept 2009)
• "Cousin Paul and Mr. T," Defenestration (May 2009)
• "Imaginary Numbers," Zone 3 (Fall 2008)
• "What’s Missing from the Internet," Carousel (June 2007)
• "Variations on a Second Head," Carousel (June 2007)
• "The Front Line," RK-VR-Y Magazine (2005)
• "The First Time," RK-VR-Y Magazine (2005)
• "The Champion," Back Alley Arts Organization (2004)

     Poetry

• Self Park, an ekphrastic collaboration (Summer 2008)
• "The Wall" and "Coming Down With It," Babel Fruit (Summer 2008)
• "Cousin Paul and Mr. T," The Means (2006)
• "Salute the General and Her Zygomatic Process," poetry chapbook, University of Arkansas Press (2003)
• "So God Chose County Cork," Aux Arc Review (2003)
• "Andrea," Aux Arc Review (2003)
• "Purple Lilies," Gin Bender Review (2003)
• "The Things We Wonder When the Phone Rings," Sycamore Review (2002)
• "Backpack Full of Emptiness," Friction Magazine (2001)
• "Our House," Adirondack Review (2001)
• "Notes Passing," Aileron Review (2001)
• "Eggplant," "Volunteer," "Visions of My Father," "Rowan," "Our House," Cafι Shapiro Anthology (2000)
• "The Burning," In Posse Review (2000)
• "Untranslatable," Current Magazine Contest Winner (2000)

     Awards

• Writers' Room of Boston Nonfiction Fellowship (2013)
• Somerville Arts Council fellowship grant (2012)
• Wesleyan Writers' Conference Scholarship (2011)
• George William Kenwood Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing, Vancouver BC (2005)
• CBC Television Jim Burt Prize in Creative Writing, Vancouver BC (2005)
• Chapbook contest winner, Aux Arc Review (2003)
• Virginia Voss writing award, University of Michigan (2000)
• Hopwood Undergraduate Award in poetry, University of Michigan (1998)

Check out Joelle's blog.