Essay

My Mother's Disappearances

Children like me, whose parents suffer from mental health issues, often become invisible ourselves.

Divining the Secrets of Human Connection

Searching for a meaningful bond among those who are paying to find it. 

What A Bullet Can Do

A shot from my father’s gun killed our neighbor and traced a trajectory through decades of guilt, shame, fear and anger. Unraveling the moment my family calls "the accident."

Life and Death Online

As more and more friendships are built virtually, we must confront the nuances of grieving someone you've never met in person. 

Entrance Not For Everybody

Berlin sparked my curiosity about secret spaces, rooms accessible only through hidden doors. But even magic theaters for madmen are more interesting when someone is with you.

Searching for the Self-Loathing Woman Writer

Did these women hate themselves, or did they write about a world that hated them?

Chasing Ghost Signs

Searching for fading words in London, New York, Melbourne and San Francisco.

Remembering in Russian

Extraordinary as it may seem, Stalin’s 21st-century comeback is so ordinary it’s almost on time—and it reveals the complicated legacy of Russia’s relationship with history, authority, and the USSR.

Beautiful Losses

Leonard Cohen's decision to pursue music as a career certainly proved a good one—for him and for us—but I'm still curious about what we lost when he gave up writing fiction.

The End of Progress

As I watched my childhood friend under arrest on the evening news, the hopeful narratives of racial advancement that had sustained and motivated me began to collapse.