Writing

Clippings:

“It’s surreal and it’s striking and it leaves me feeling…a bit enchanted, in the classic sense of the word. Dazed and with a touch of magic lingering on the tongue.”—Charles Payseur at Quick Sip Review, on my piece “Pastel Witch” in Glittership

“[It] was done quite well. The author is able to establish a lot of world building alongside well-developed characters… It’s a great adaptation of an old magic myth into a modern city.”—Jacob Olson at Reviews and Robots, on my piece “Under Her White Stars” in MJP’s Broken Metropolis anthology

“And what Simaetha gets precisely right is its most potent, thematic refrain: that a man as a savior is the greatest myth, the most foolish fantasy of all… Dialogue, poetry, cover song, choreography, and original score are woven together in a dynamic method of storytelling—and it’s worth noting that Budenz’s words and voice both ring, in intervals, with beauty and terror. These shifting modalities allow for not only surprise but for tragicomedy to emerge. In a show that deals with systemic abuse, gender inequality, femme discrimination, slut shaming, and ageism, deadpan humor and comedic juxtaposition manage to make enough room for laughter.”—Laurence Ross on SIMAETHA: a Dreambaby Cabaret in his review for BmoreArt

2023

2022

  • “R.A.T. (Rapidly Aging Twink)” and “A Sphinx, My Body” published by Wussy Mag
  • “Niche Shift” published by Taco Bell Quarterly
  • “Apology for the Divine Masculine” published by Reckoning
  • “The Oak I Knew” forthcoming by Dreampunk Press
  • “Is it really such a fate,” “Peace! The Charm’s Wound Up,” and “White Magic” published by Screen Door Review
  • “So That You May Endure Your Perfection of Weeping” published in They Call Us Matrons

2021

  • “And Then Again to the Next” published by Wizards in Space
  • “From a Runaway Bride to Her Late Fiancé’s Spirit” published by The Winnow Magazine
  • “Seven of Pentacles” published by The Amethyst Review
  • “Medea was an Aries with a Scorpio Moon” published by The Wondrous Real (nominated for Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net anthology!) and reprinted by They Call Us Damsels
  • “Goth Bitch” published by Ghost City Review
  • “The Magician (Reversed), or To Be in Love with the Void” featured at OutWrite DC’s VoidJunk reading and performance series

2020

  • “Wombless Empress, Galapagos Phoenix” and “Mayfair” published by The Avenue
  • “And Then Again to the Next” published by Aurelia Leo
  • JHU student profiles for Knight-Hennessey Scholarship and Hertz Graduate Fellowship published by the Johns Hopkins HUB
  • “Deadbeat” published by Neon Hemlock’s Baffling magazine
  • “Bloodmoon Bloodbath,” a video poetry reading, featured in Apartscape, an online arts festival celebrating local Baltimore artists
  • “Ano/Rite,” a poem set to electronic composition and accompanied by a short film, featured by Mind on Fire
  • “Earth is the Target!/ We are the Trigger!/ Ashes! Ashes!/ We Don’t Fall Down!” converted to short film and featured in Cyber Distancing 5: Dystopia
  • “To Be in Love with the Void,” “XV: I Pulled the Devil,” “Somnambulist,” and “Spell to Grant Access to the New Orleans Black Hat Society” published by Pussy Magic Press
  • “The Carrion Eaters” published by Entropy Magazine

2019

  • “Ah, Well” published by Mirror Dance
  • (Forthcoming) “Trial” published by Lycan Valley Press
  • “Seen” published in Mad Scientist Journal’s I Didn’t Break the Lamp anthology
  • “The Girl the Crows Followed” published by Corvid Queen
  • Simaetha awarded a Baker Innovative Projects Grant for staging in January 2020

2018

  • “Tea Leaves” published by Ginger Bread House
  • “Eventually, the Rain Stops” published by ViaNolaVie
  •  “In Season,” “Bed Death as Chrysalis,” “Blood Moon,” “A Spell to Draw You Near (Again),” and “Water Sign, July 10th, 1993, 6:53 AM, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,” published by Pussy Magic Press in their Hallow’s Eve issue as well as their blog
  • “Fire in the Chart” published by Liminality
  • “Slade of the Maiden’s Womb” published by Slipstream Press
  • PASTEL WITCHERIES, a poetry chapbook, published by Seven Kitchens Press
  • “Pastel Witch” published by Glittership
  • “Under Her White Stars” published in the Broken Metropolis anthology by Mason Jar Press
  • (Forthcoming) Spellwork for the Modern Pastel Witch published by Birds Piled Loosely as one of the winners of their 2018 Hard to Swallow Chapbook Contest

2017

  • Simaetha: A Dreambaby Cabaret produced by The Annex Theater
  • “In Protest of the First Amendment Defense Act” published by Assaracus
  •  “Spell to Grant Access to the New Orleans Black Hat Society” published by The Avenue
  • (Forthcoming) “The Poet Prays for a Line Piece” published by Bonk! Magazine
  • “Eventually, the Rain Stops” published on Medium
  • Pastel Witcheries, my hybrid poetry chapbook, made it as a Finalist in the Keystone Chapbook Contest by Seven Kitchens Press
  • Review of Not Without Our Laughter by the Black Ladies Brunch Collective published by The Lit Pub

2016

  • The Lord of Flies, co-written with Sarah Jacklin, Rjyan Kidwell, Sarah Lamar, and Madison Coan; produced by The Annex Theater
  • New and Original Adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita; produced by The Annex Theater, which appeared among the top five plays in Baltimore City Paper’s Top Ten Stage Productions of 2016
  • “Blood Moon,” “Scrybaby,” “Simaetha,” and “Ano/Rite?” published by Assaracus
  • Interview with author Jessica Anya Blau published by JMWW
  • “My Lover Is the Winter Yet to Come” published by The Avenue

2015

2014

2013

“Houseguest” awarded by The Writer’s Digest