In the Dark all Cats are Gray

Winner of the 2025 Orison Fiction Prize.

Forthcoming publication by Orison Books.

When Herschel was 15, he fled his homophobic New Jersey hometown, seeking refuge in the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community of Brooklyn. He believed that a beard, black hat, and long side curls could change his sexual orientation, that he could reinvent myself through divine intervention. As part of the bal teshuva phenomenon of the 1970s, Herschel was one of thousands of young, secular Jews who abandoned suburban comforts and secular ambitions for an all-consuming, ultra-Orthodox way of life. But the promise of spiritual enlightenment could not silence his inner turmoil. For decades, he lived a perilous double life, torn between the tensions of faith, desire, and the quest for belonging.

An essay summarizing my own journey was published in Tablet Magazine (June 2020), and I was a finalist in the 2024 Writers League of Texas Manuscript Contest.