Essays, Reporting, Criticism

Personal Essays

An Ode to Arms

Vogue

March 21, 2023.

Raemkai's Tomb

metmuseum.org

November 19, 2022.

Seven Books Grappling With What Writers Leave Behind

The Atlantic

July 11, 2022.

Letter of Recommendation: Frank O'Hara

New York Times Magazine

June 22, 2022.

My gritty 1980s NYC childhood wasn’t idyllic—but it prepared me for life

New York Post

June 18, 2022.

On 'Genius'

TIME

June 17, 2022.

Guest Essay: Happy Father's Day to the Imperfect Fathers

New York Times Opinion

June 16, 2022.

Ada Calhoun on Ouida, The Most Famous Lady Novelist You’ve Never Heard Of

Literary Hub

June 13, 2022.

Ancestry Travel: Tracing a Family Tree Through England & Norway

Airbnb Magazine,

February 11, 2020.

That Time Middle-aged Stars Got to Act Their Age

Dame,

January 07, 2020.

What We Mean When We Say Marriage Is Work

The Cut,

January 22, 2018.

Modern Love: To Stay Married, Embrace Change

The New York Times,

April 23, 2017.

The Unruly Pleasures of the Mid-Manhattan Library

NewYorker.com,

February 22, 2016.

What Went Wrong at St Mark’s Bookshop

NewYorker.com,

February 12, 2016.

Op-Ed: My City Was Gone. (Or Was It?)

New York Times: Opinion,

November 01, 2015.

Call Me What You Will

O magazine, November 2015.

The Many Lives of St. Marks Place

NewYorker.com,

October 30, 2015.

(First Serial of St. Marks Is Dead.)

Modern Love: The Wedding Toast I’ll Never Give

New York Times: Sunday Styles,

July 19, 2015.

NYT follow-up with reader responses.

The Secret to Staying Friends in Your Thirties

NYMag.com,

April 21, 2015.

The Riots in Tompkins Square Park, Reenacted

New Yorker.com,

May 21, 2014.

Going Back Home: Unlocking the Secrets of Postresidency Stress Syndrome

Poets & Writers, February 2014.

Lives: Falling for Sprawl

New York Times Magazine,

August 25, 2013.

Plus NYTM blog post: Writing Career as Revenge Fantasy.

Op-Ed: Rooting for Mother Teresa

New York Times: Opinion,

July 12, 2013.

Christmas in Costume

New York Times: T Magazine,

December 02, 2012.

Lives: Misery Games

New York Times Magazine,

October 21, 2012.

Lives: Looted for Love

New York Times Magazine,

June 22, 2012.

Lives: Geekdom Revisited

New York Times Magazine,

July 31, 2011.

National News Reporting

Gen-X Women Are Caught in a Generational Tug-of-War

The Atlantic

January 07, 2020.

Gen X Women Get Less Sleep Than Any Other Generation

Time

January 06, 2020.

The Shocking Reason Gen X Women Can't Sleep

New York Post

January 04, 2020.

The New York Origins of Vintage Fashion

New York magazine's The Cut,

November 22, 2017.

The New Midlife Crisis

Oprah.com,

October 05, 2017.

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.

The Sisters Who Talked to Spirits

Narratively.com,

September 02, 2015.

How a Dinner Between 2 Virginia Tech Students Ended in Murder

Cosmopolitan.com,

June 02, 2015.

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.

The Rise of DIY Abortions

The New Republic,

December 31, 2012.

Idaho PDF

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.

Geocaching is Fun Hidden in Plain Sight

The Los Angeles Times,

March 18, 2012.

Book Reviews for the New York Times Book Review

A Larger-Than-Life Poet and the Women in His Shadow

September 16, 2023.

To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine

June 03, 2018.

Troubled Waters: Chief Engineer

*Times Literary Supplement,

August 01, 2017.

King of the Hill: Gotham Rising and In Pursuit of Privilege

*Times Literary Supplement

February 22, 2017.

Scream by Tama Janowitz

August 19, 2016.

The Lonely City by Olivia Laing

March 20, 2016.

The Chelsea

Inside the Dream Palace by Sherill Tippins.

December 06, 2013.

Downtown

The Village by John Strausbaugh.

June 02, 2013.

Roger and Me

Long Shot by Mike Piazza.

April 05, 2013.

Life Backstage

Drama by Raina Telgemeier.

August 26, 2012.

Cheerful Debauchery

Dropped Names by Frank Langella.

April 22, 2012.

Life Onstage with John Lithgow and Hal Holbrook

September 30, 2011.

Good Stuff: A Daughter Remembers Cary Grant

June 03, 2011.

Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century

By Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger.

July 30, 2010.

Hollywood Chronicle: Tony Curtis, Clint Eastwood, Chris Welles, Charles Higham

December 06, 2009.

Non-Fiction Chronicle

Gideon, Reid, Knoedelseder, Rosenblum.

September 17, 2009.

Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography

By Andrew Morton.

February 17, 2009.

Hollywood Chronicle

December 07, 2008.

Clark Gable: Tormented Star

By David Bret.

March 30, 2008.

Fiction Chronicle

December 02, 2007.

Sin in the Second City

By Karen Abbott.

August 12, 2007.

Stacked: A 32DDD Reports from the Front

By Susan Seligson.

April 01, 2007.

The Best Seat in the House

By Allen Rucker.

January 21, 2007.

The Interpretation of Murder

By Jed Rubenfeld.

September 17, 2006.

Natural Selection

By Gary Giddins.

August 27, 2006.

The Pale Blue Eye

By Louis Bayard.

July 09, 2006.

A Plea for Eros

By Siri Hustvedt.

February 19, 2006.

Honky Tonk Parade

By John Lahr.

January 29, 2006.

I’m No Saint

By Elizabeth Hayt.

December 25, 2005.

The Diamond

By Julie Baumgold.

December 04, 2005.

Wild Girls

By Diana Souhami.

November 13, 2005.

In the Fold

By Rachel Cusk.

October 27, 2005.

Fiction Chronicle

August 14, 2005.