Over the last few years I’ve begun writing flash creative nonfiction and essays. Kelly Sundberg, managing editor of Brevity: Journal of Concise Nonfiction, wrote about my work for Vela’s “Eight Flash Nonfiction Writers”:

“Morse is primarily a poet, with a poet’s facility with structure and lyricism. Morse writes, in “The Saigon Kiss,” about her experience as a foreigner in Vietnam, where she interrogates identity and language while refusing to shy away from her own privilege. “Ritual” is a stunning piece about maternity. In “Open the Door and Here,” a flash essay forthcoming from Quarter After Eight (an essay I was a reader for), she again portrays the complicated nature of whiteness and privilege in neocolonial Southeastern Asia.”

Below is a selection of published work online:

“Common Motivations for Teaching English Abroad, or a Short Physics Lesson”, a hybrid, hermit crab format essay where I address migration, neocapitalism, and neoglobalism through the lens of my experiences teaching students in the USA versus in Vietnam. – Gulf Coast

“Qua Hang Vang” (Persimmons), lyrical nonfiction that takes as its impetus Li-Young Lee’s poem “Persimmons”. The piece contains pieces of Lee’s poems within it, and deals with the miscommunications that can happen between cultures, between the reader and the author. – Rappahannock Review

“Life-Changing Cookbooks: 1080 Recetas de Cocina”, my homage to Spanish cuisine, living in Barcelona as a illegal immigrant, and growing up – Paste Magazine

“Loose Parts”, a flash piece examining industrial agribusiness and my childhood – Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment

“Embracing the Painfully Impossible in the Human Heart”, a craft essay examining the lyrical roots of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric – Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog

“Ritual”, a flash meditation on motherhood – River Teeth Journal’s Beautiful Things Series

“The Saigon Kiss”, creative nonfiction about living in Vietnam – Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

“Faulkner’s Vietnam”, craft essay accompanying “The Saigon Kiss” – Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog

“Phở bò Hà Nội” poem and accompanying essay about the Vietnamese noodle dish phở – Alimentum: The Literature of Food