Personal Essays
My gritty 1980s NYC childhood wasn’t idyllic—but it prepared me for life
New York Post
June 18, 2022.The Many Lives of St. Marks Place
NewYorker.com,
October 30, 2015.(First Serial of St. Marks Is Dead.)
Lives: Falling for Sprawl
New York Times Magazine,
August 25, 2013.Plus NYTM blog post: Writing Career as Revenge Fantasy.
What I Wouldn’t Do For My Cat
Salon.com,
February 08, 2008.I talked about this on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation”; listen here.
National News Reporting
Judges Are Using Brain Science to Help Children Caught in the Courts System
Quartz,
November 27, 2015.Undertaken as a project for the Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being and the National Health Journalism Fellowship, programs of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism.
Bobby Shmurda Speaks Out About His Gang-Related Charges: ‘That Shit Is Bullshit
Billboard,
February 21, 2015.Also, see the exclusive Q&A from jail. February 8, 2015.
Mommy Had to Go Away for a While
New York Times Magazine,
April 25, 2012.Alabama PDF. Winner of the 2013 Council on Contemporary Families Media Award for Print Coverage of Family Issues.
Cash for Clunkers: Demolition Derbies Hard Up for Cars
Time magazine,
September 03, 2009.Picked up by The Daily Show, November 11, 2009. Watch here.
Book Reviews for the New York Times Book Review
Life Backstage
Drama by Raina Telgemeier.
August 26, 2012.Cheerful Debauchery
Dropped Names by Frank Langella.
April 22, 2012.Non-Fiction Chronicle
Gideon, Reid, Knoedelseder, Rosenblum.
September 17, 2009.