More on: essays

BIG ENOCH WAS JUST SHIFTING into third gear in his exegesis of the prophetic nature of Amos 7:9 when D-Town Filo stabbed Sidetrack in the cheek with a sharpened welding rod. I admit to having zoned out a bit in the middle there. It had something to do with Donald Trump being a new Jeroboam,…

——–South Texas Family Residential Center, Dilley, Texas   From June 2025 to April 2026, the author was held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with her mother and four younger siblings, after her father was charged with a fatal attack on protestors in Boulder, Colorado. This essay is based on notes she kept during her…

I LIVE ON THREE ACRES at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills in Larimer County, Colorado. It often snows more on these few acres than it does in Fort Collins, just four miles away. When the weather shifts, the wind is fierce, so much so that it has overturned horse trailers and uprooted playsets.…

It’s sugar that makes fruit gel. Sugar preserves. Sugar is an everyday miracle. It causes fruit to retain its bright color, until it is brighter than it ever was on the tree. Heat and sugar alchemize to turn a jar of jam into a glowing jewel.

In the Avett Brothers, we share in life’s ups and downs even without blood kinship, and by offering one another redemption born of the generosity of forgiveness, the gift of collaboration, and the freedom to pursue our ideas, our musical family blossoms with creativity.

I was warned by teachers and fellow artists against allowing my work to be influenced by others. But I have never really been convinced by the notion of being original.

I would like for Louise Glück to be my friend. This is a recent problem

In a passing moment at the door, Merrill captures a truth about the influence of friendship. Through the unaware examples of others, we recognize values we have been searching for in ourselves—edges or shades of the person we might become.

Through eight drafts over six years, John was my cheerleader. With each new revision, he would tell me how the play had grown, how a character had been fleshed out, how the story was becoming clearer, how I’d finally solved a certain scene. The acerbic John of early days was gone; he was my advocate, my encourager. My Samwise.

I ask her about all things millennial, and she tells me how to take decent selfies, how Tinder works, explains online etiquette and edibles, Venmo and UberPool. She asks me what it’s like to have a kids and a husband, to be “settled.”