More than anything, for me as a writer, seeing my work published means that the project is no longer really mine. I’ve always felt that way, for trade articles, commentary, short stories, or novels. Once something is published, it mostly […]
What I’m Working on in 2024
I already feel like a jerk. The only thing that is going to keep me from being selfish and single-minded here in 2024 is if I need surgery or get diagnosed with cancer or just don’t wake up some morning. […]
Once We Become Unprecedented
Leave it to poets to knock over all the mental obstacles to attempts at defining what a person is before the external world really goes to work on them.
Private Utopias and the Future of Everyone
A version of this essay was published in the Illumination publication on Medium several weeks ago. These days, I wish as hard as I can for good things that are considered impossible to happen, like there actually being a Santa […]
Lining Up for Flight: “Sound Effect Infinity” About to Lift Off
This is a story about why you love music and why, when that song is playing, the world continues to seem slightly magical.
Our national conversation about gender identity is one big miscommunication
I had a friend in junior high whose father and uncle decided they’d had enough of his long hair (beautiful, silken, golden wheat-colored, cascading well below his shoulders). They trapped him in the bathroom one Sunday night, held him against […]
At Play in the Land of Identity
It would also be incredibly helpful for all of us to stop worrying so much about how we think other people see us.
A Brief Scene from “Old Music for New People:” how to hold a knife
“First of all, you need to relax,” Mom said. She put her hand on Rita’s wrist. “Calm down. Never hold a paring knife like you want to kill someone. It’s not a weapon. It’s an instrument. You need to learn that. Maybe someday you’ll want to become a surgeon.”
Life on the Outskirts of DNA: Transcending Race
I’m in the middle of writing a novel about 21st century racial identity, among other things. Also, pioneering, mixed race farming communities in the 19th century Midwest, and the future Utopia that we are all not going to know we’re […]
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