Hello! I’m Christie, and I write mostly lyric essays and flash nonfiction, although I also dabble in speculative flash fiction and other forms. Like most writers I know, I’ve been creating stories and playing with words for as far back as I can remember. In high school, I wrote stories for both the literary magazine and the newspaper—but I went the journalism route in college because I could more easily see how it would translate into a paying day job for someone like me, too shy (I thought) to be an English teacher or professor.

I wrote for newspapers my first five years out of college, and won some awards, including the Virginia Press Association’s (VPA) “Best in Show” Award, given to one news story with a Virginia dateline per year (my feature series beat out entries from The Washington Post! Bob Woodward won the award the year before!). Since I mostly went into journalism for love of the written word, and not so much for getting the scoop—I transitioned into writing and editing for nonprofit organizations. 

After my daughter was born and we learned she was deaf, my husband and I began learning American Sign Language (ASL), which we use in our home for hours daily; my daughter has cochlear implants but they give her “listening fatigue,” so some days we just sign. I was lucky to be able to attend the Parent-Infant Program (PIP) at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC with her for the first two years of her life, so she and I could receive ASL immersion while befriending other Deaf babies and their families. 

To my joy and astonishment, I was selected for the George Washington University English Department’s Jenny McKean Moore Workshop for Creative Nonfiction in Fall 2020, a free, semester-long program for non-GWU students, led that year by Cutter Wood. This was my first-ever creative-writing class or workshop! I was later selected for the GWU JMM Workshop for Fiction (Fall 2022) taught by Johannes Lichtman, and another GWU JMM Workshop for Creative Nonfiction (Fall 2024) led by Kat Chow. It’s these workshops, along with a year-long Novel Workshop taught by Diane Zinna through The Writer’s Center, that make up my writerly education. 

I’m a latecomer to publishing my creative work! I started submitting my writing in earnest in October 2025, and have been lucky to appear in such stellar publications as Electric Literature, HAD, The Lascaux Review, Ghost Parachute, L’Esprit, Midway Journal, LEON Literary Review, Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine, South 85 Journal, ARTWIFE, The Bulb Region, HerStry, *82 Review, and more. One of my lyric essays was even nominated for a Pushcart Prize! See My Writings for the full list. 

I live in Springfield, Virginia, and would love to hang out with you at any readings, book launches, or other writerly events in the DC area. I’m also happy to be friends with you on Instagram. You can find me over there at christielauryn.