Checking a town’s creative climate
When you’re thinking about moving somewhere new, you research things like housing prices, how far it is from a major airport, and weather. It occurred to me recently that it’s also important to check [...]
When have you said, “I could live here”?
Thirty years ago I drove a red rental car into Silver City, New Mexico, on my way to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and the rest of my life. I’d just moved from Brooklyn back [...]
I wish I were a hybrid
I’m face to face with the bronze cast of a woman with full lips, cowrie-shaped eyes, and the body of a manta ray. We’re in the Legion of Honor’s neoclassical courtyard, where Rodin’s Thinker [...]
What responsibility does a writer have to the places she writes about?
I recently spoke with Berlin-based Joe Baur, creator of the Travel Tomorrow podcast. (My part of the program starts at 14:00.) We talked about many things, from how to be a slightly less Ugly [...]
The loneliness of the long-distance novelist
Susan Orlean once described writing a book as “a slow-motion wrestling match.” I’ll add that there’s no one to tag in if your energy flags. Worse, at first you can’t even see your opponent. [...]
On throwing books across the room
I read in bed at night. When I sense sleep rippling towards me, I drop the book to the floor (I don’t have a nightstand), hoping to catch the wave before my body and [...]
Just another cancer post: the clouds of Rad Onc
The gurney was hard, and I’d been holding still for fifteen long minutes. Tears pooled in my ears, and my nose itched. I took a breath deeper than I would have thought possible. “That’s [...]
Why it took me two years to come out of the cancer closet
Two years ago I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. I’m okay now, and with the experience receding in the rear-view mirror, I can finally write and talk about it. From that impulse comes [...]