Essays
Many literary journals and magazines reserve their web sites behind a pay wall. These journals cannot survive on goodwill, so please consider subscribing or seeking out an issue now and then in your local independent book store. Libraries are great resources for finding copies of literary journals as well.
Harper’s Magazine is one of my favorite things in the world. There are 171 years of back issues, and if you subscribe you can have access to all of them. Imagine being able to read everything here. If you simply want to buy a back issue, you can call the magazine at 212-420-5720.
Please don’t pirate my work. Share it if you’d like, but pay a fair price. Much obliged.
PUBLISHED ESSAYS:
Mere Belief, Harper’s, November, 2023
A Winner Every Time, Oregon Humanities, Summer, 2022
Everything Dies, Lion’s Roar, September, 2021
We, the Aliens, Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture, Winter 2020-21
Thing of Ether, Harper’s, December, 2020
The Sheep, Ploughshares, Winter 2019-2020
Curtains, in the anthology Apple, Tree: Writers on Their Parents, edited by Lise Funderburg (University of Nebraska Press, 2019)
Signs, Zyzzyva, Spring, 2019
Mirage, The Sun, Spring, 2019
Twelve Hours, Conjunctions, Spring, 2019
Catechism of the Waters, Harper’s, March, 2019
Out of Time – Harper’s, March, 2018
Traditional Chinese Massage Number 1 – Conjunctions, Fall, 2017
The Hinge – Zyzzyva, Spring, 2017
The Buffet, an essay in What’s Wrong With Mindfulness (And What Isn’t), edited by Robert Rosenbaum and Barry Magid (Simon and Schuster, Oct. 2016)
Gaijin – Conjunctions, 2016
On Dignity – Tricycle, Summer, 2016
Miracles and Wonders: One Woman’s Search for the Perfect Bra – Harper’s, November, 2015
Self Care for Future Corpses – Tricycle, Winter, 2015
The Magic Toilet – Harper’s, June, 2015
Offshore Assets – Sunset, April, 2015
Push a Lizard into the Grass – Schwa Fire, March, 2015
The Indigo City – Web Conjunctions, August 12, 2014
Great Buddha Gym for All Mens and Womens – SheBooks, July, 2014
Here Be Monsters – Conjunctions, Winter, 2013
An Uncommon Pain – Harper’s, May, 2013
The One in Front of You – Harper’s, July, 2012
Falling – Conjunctions, #57, 2011
An Education – Vogue, July, 2011
On Spectrum – Harper’s, April, 2010
We are Causing a Commotion – Portland Magazine, June, 2010
As If There is Nothing to Lose – Tricycle, Spring, 2010
How Things Happen in Eye of My Heart, 2009 (Harper, NY)
Speaking in Tongues – Portland Magazine, Spring, 2009
Sutra of Maggots and Blowflies – Conjunctions, 2008
Twitchy – Antioch Review, Spring, 2008
The Deep End of the Ocean – Reader’s Digest, June, 2008
Washing Out Emptiness – Tricycle, Fall, 2007
Balls – Seattle Review, vol 1, #1, 2007
Chemo World – Harper’s, June, 2007
Beloved Community – Tricycle, Fall, 2006
Cadavers – Antioch Review, Spring, 2004
In the Realm of the Everlasting – Portland Magazine, Winter 2004
On Being Text – Creative Nonfiction, 2004
Scars – Portland Magazine, Winter, 2003
The Birth – Portland Magazine, Spring, 2003
Second Chair – Antioch Review, Fall, 2002
Recording – Threepenny Review, August, 2002
Seeing Clearly – Audubon, January, 2002
Violation – Tin House, Summer, 2001
Mean Cuisine – The Sun, Oct., 2000
One Taste – Copia, June, 2000
Portland From the Air – essay accompanying photographs, (Graphic Arts, Portland, 2000)
Rescuing Orchids – Audubon, Sept./Oct. 2000
Boy Crazy and Double Dare – in Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (Villard, NY, 1999)
Manta Dance – Sierra, Sept. 1999
“I’m From Here,” – Conde Nast Traveler, Nov. 1999
Wolves – in Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer, ed. by Howard Junker (Heinemann, 1999)
Marginalia – Portland Magazine, Spring, 1998
The First Time I Saw Florence – Conde Nast Traveler, March 1997
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – in Click: Becoming Feminists, ed. by Lynn Crosbie (Macfarlane,Walter and Ross, Canada, 1997)
Big Ideas – Antioch Review, Summer, 1997
The World Made Whole and Full of Flesh – in Secrets, ed. by Denny and Linny Stovall (Left Bank, Portland, 1996)
The Hounds of Spring – Salon, July 1996
Censors and Sensibilities – Mirabella, Jan. 1 1995
The Basement – in Home: American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own, ed. by Sharon Sloan and Steve Fiffer (Pantheon, N, 1995)
Never Let the Locals See Your Map – Harper’s, September 1995
The Only Good Mongoose – Outside, Dec., 1994
The Buddhist Sex Quandary, Tricycle, Winter, 1994
Good Soldiers – The New Republic, Jan., 1994
Bowing, Tricycle, Fall, 1994
Meat – Antioch Review, Summer, 1994
The Happiest Place on Earth – in Kids’ Stuff, ed. by Denny and Linny Stovall (Left Bank, Portland, 1993)
The Weight That Women Carry – Harper’s, March, 1993
Sweet Surrender – Outside, October, 1993
Private Matters – Vogue, July, 1992
Talk Dirty to Me – Harper’s, Dec. 1992
It’s Been Real – Esquire, April 1991
Personal Best – Vogue, July 1991
Gentleman Caller – Zyzzyva, Fall, 1991
One Mother’s Gain – Vogue Dec. 1991
Neither Morons Nor Imbeciles Nor Idiots – Harper’s, June, 1990
Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire – Harper’s Jan., 1990
The Only Harmless Great Thing – New Yorker, Jan. 23, 1989
We Do Abortions Here – Harper’s, October, 1987
Orphans – Zyzzyva, Winter, 1986-87
ANTHOLOGIES
How Things Happen in Eye of My Heart, Barbara Graham, Ed., 2009 (Harper, NY)
Boy Crazy and Double Dare, in Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood (Villard, NY, 1999)
Wolves, in Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer, ed. by Howard Junker (Heinemann, 1999)
You Can’t Always Get What You Want, in Click: Becoming Feminists, ed. by Lynn Crosbie (Macfarlane,
Walter and Ross, Canada, 1997)
The Happiest Place on Earth, in Kids’ Stuff, ed. by Denny and Linny Stovall
(Left Bank, Portland, 1993)
The World Made Whole and Full of Flesh, in Secrets, ed. by Denny and Linny
Stovall (Left Bank, Portland, 1996)