The “Crisis” of Male Adolescence Is Nothing New
Boys don’t need special treatment—it’s entitlement that’s getting them into trouble.
Wandering on the Margins
From 2017 to 2020 I took portraits of interesting characters on the streets of Venice Beach, Long Beach, Hollywood, and Anaheim, California. The work was motivated by my love of…
Glory of the Seas
A couple of years ago I moved into a retirement village and had to do some serious downsizing. My shell collection went from five shelves to two, not counting the…
The Ungrateful Stranger: Whose Story Deserves Welcome?
On a spring evening in 2016, the day after Donald Trump won a series of primaries cementing his candidacy, I stepped into a hushed auditorium in midtown Manhattan and found…
Writers With Day Jobs: Earning a Living Outside of Literature
In 2018, as a younger writer in a different phase of life, I was thrilled to interview prolific author William Vollmann. A digital magazine employed me at the time, but…
Dismantling the Mother Shelf: Expanding Our Thinking About Women’s Stories of Parenthood
When it comes to the Mother Shelf, it’s tempting to shrug our collective shoulders and say, Well, that’s just how book marketing works. But the uncomfortable truth is that publishers,…
How the Light Gets In: The Nightlight
In being a parent and being a writer, there is no routine, no one way of doing things that is right; some things that we must do to get the…