Born in Brooklyn. Raised in Seattle. Live in NYC. “Art is anything you can get away with.” When I get bored I build things. Like this game, Go Pizza Rat Go.

Outside of advertising, I just finished writing a coming-of-age novel about the enigmatic Meir Feldstein, a young man whose Orthodox Jewish parents reject him after he comes out as gay. They are led to believe his unspeakable childhood trauma is to blame, and they encourage him to attend a program which promises to cure him of his homosexuality. Obsessed with sleight of hand illusions as a child, Meir has little patience for that which cannot be explained. But desperate for his parents’ approval, he suspends his disbelief and participates in private and group therapy sessions in addition to a weekend retreat on a campsite aimed to rid himself of his same-sex desires. While in the program, he discovers a support group for queer youth. Drawing on the lessons he learned from his adolescence in misdirection and deception, he at last finds the conviction to quit the program, which years later is sued for fraud and ordered to close. After fighting for his parents’ acceptance, he begins to understand the work will be in learning to accept them instead. The transformation he goes through is not from gay to straight but from allowing others to define his story to defining his own. The novel pulls back the curtain giving readers a peek into the secretive world of conversion therapy while revealing fascinating details about the art of magic.