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I'm Sasha. Thanks for stopping by.
In my novels and stories, I'm drawn to the collision of race, class, loss, and love. I studied philosophy and English literature at UCLA. I pursued a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from New York University where I was mentored by E.L. Doctorow.
Like many women of my generation, feeling entitled to write became, over time, a muscle I made stronger. I'm active on Bluesky (@pokerforgirls.bsky.social). My feed is focused on writing, publishing, and poker.
Novels
I seek representation for my first novel, Paradise, a Lower East Side family saga spanning 80 years that speaks in tongue—English, Spanish, and Yiddish. The story chronicles the unlikely friendship between two orphans, Jewish and Puerto Rican, separated in age by 60 years, who give each other a reason to live.
A chapter from Paradise was a top-ten finalist in the Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Contest, and received an honorable mention from the New Millennium Writings' Fiction Competition. My second novel is also set in New York, inspired by the legendary To Kill a Mockingbird.
Stories
My first published story Into The Wind appeared in The Mailer Review, and also received an honorable mention from Glimmer Train's Short-Story Award for New Writers. My story Dear Mr. Doctorow, received an honorable mention from the global Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. The story then won the 2nd place Bechtel Prize, judged by novelist Garth Greenwell, and was published in Teachers & Writers Magazine. It was the first time T&W allowed fiction to be submitted.
Non-Fiction
In addition to my writing life, I've had an unusual poker life. One of the few women globally to conceive and write a poker book, I authored The Total Poker Manual, published by Welden Owen. A chapter from a poker memoir-in-progress was published by Shooter Literary Magazine in the UK.
Journalism
As a free-lance journalist, I've written articles, book reviews, and essays for both general, and poker-related, audiences. Publications and platforms include the Guardian (London); the Village Voice; the National Law Journal; the New York Law Journal; IVillage.com; the Chelsea-Clinton News; the Los Angeles Reader; Red Chip Poker; and PokerNews.com. I was an on-air news reporter for WBAI in New York, and for Pacifica Network News in Washington D.C.
Community
An unrepentant humanist, I love to capture the joys, small and medium, found in urban working-class communities. For ten years, in partnership with the New York Writers Coalition, I protected access to the arts by leading weekly creative-writing workshops. These workshops continued independently and online in the age of Covid.