December 23, 2016
Only Wildness
I recently woke up to a surprise snowstorm that dropped somewhere between six and eight inches of snow in my neighborhood. I’ve lived in Cleveland long enough to not consider […]
December 5, 2016
Conversations about Necrophilia Are Not for Everyone
My short story, “The Necrophiliac’s Almanac,” which surrounds a closeted necrophile struggling to contain her desires, appears in the Nov/Dec 2016 issue of the Kenyon Review. As part of my […]
November 29, 2016
What Should You Be Writing? Encouragement from All Around
A poll I found somewhere said that eighty-one percent of Americans think they “have a book in them.” Naturally, I’m one of them. I’m currently writing a book about California’s rural […]
November 17, 2016
Introductory Paragraphs
While working at Powell’s Books, I had a routine. I would pull a story or essay collection from the literature shelves, read the first few paragraphs of every piece in […]
November 2, 2016
Writers and Exercise
I’m a writer. I sit a lot. If you’re reading this, maybe you do, too. Now that I’m forty-one years old and long-term planning has replaced brash self-destruction, I have […]
October 15, 2016
Be Professional, You Freak
In addition to craft and close friends, one of the things that’s stayed with me from graduate school has to do with a writer’s public image. One of my professors—a […]
October 4, 2016
Summer Peaches, Summer Regrets
June and July are the months of blissful ambition. With the summer all kinetic energy and carefree possibility, more of it laid out before you than behind, you feel like […]
September 19, 2016
Falling Asleep While Reading
The greatest enemy of print publishing might not be digital media or the widespread expectation that reading material be free. It might be the human body. A lot of people […]
September 5, 2016
Reading at Powell’s
I’m reading at Powell’s City of Books on November 11 to celebrate the release of my essay collection, Everything We Don’t Know. The thought makes my head spin. I worked […]
August 30, 2016
Writing for Theme
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got about personal essays came from one of my MFA teachers. “Read for theme,” she said. “Not plot, theme. Then write […]
July 16, 2016
The Best Place on Earth: In Conversation with Ayelet Tsabari
Recently, I had the pleasure to correspond with Ayelet Tsabari, whose debut short story collection, The Best Place on Earth, won the 2015 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and was a 2016 Editor’s Choice in The […]
June 19, 2016
On Watching: Poetry and Desire in The Beekeeper’s Daughter
I sit in the back of the theater; that way I can watch the audience watching the play I have written and directed. I can monitor their restless movements, observe […]