Author: admin

  • Estuary (writing while walking)

    Estuary (writing while walking)

    Knitted into the plot of the novel manuscript I’m working on (which I won’t summarize here) is an estuary restoration project. I’ve drawn on a couple of preserves I’ve visited in recent years to think about what the imagined place might look like, what it is trying to accomplish. Recently, I hiked through the South Slough […]

  • ‘Tis the season

    Back to school means back to satire.  So much to choose from—my own contribution is BEST LAID PLANS. Can I admit this is the piece of “academic writing” closest to my heart? Surely the one that’s been most fun to share. Some of the research behind the story. . . less fun. Hijinks and lowjinks […]

  • Recording of “Misdirection” from The Common

    The cover’s scrambled cassette tape is the perfect lead in, as I remember so many bus rides listening to so many tapes mixed by other passengers, bus drivers, hangers on. Come along on a family hiking trip in the páramo, the upland spanning the Colombian border, in my Issue 21 story “Misdirection.” Click to hear a new […]

  • The Common #21

    The Common #21

    I’m so pleased to have a story, “Misdirection,” in this issue of The Common. Now available for pre-order, digital editions available from April 26.

  • Cordella Magazine — issue 13

    If you’ve never checked out Cordella Magazine, do. I’m always struck by the images selected for each text, by the range of voices. After twelve beautiful, varied–visually lovely, verbally rich–issues published online, the first print issue, Issue Thirteen: Rebellion, is now available for pre-order. I am pleased and proud to have a story (“Star Turn”) in this […]

  • If you’ve ever seen a flamingo. . .

    None of my photos are as close-up, glossy, right there with you as the alert yet resting bird Nowhere Magazine paired with my story, “Of a Feather.” But I did see flamingos in Patagonia a couple of years ago, and I did take pictures. And it did start me thinking about other flamingos I had […]

  • Duct Tape Obelisk 2

    I wrote about the duct-taped obelisk, subsequently restored, last fall (Duct Tape Obelisk). It’s real—or it was—and it gave me a springboard or an excuse or a pretext to think about birthdays in cemeteries and restoration and rebellion and loss. Some of which made it into a short story, “Give that Girl a Wilson Cigar!”, […]

  • Duct Tape Obelisk

    There’s a cemetery I sometimes walk through on my way to work, or on my way home. They’re mostly historic graves, though I think interments still take place from time to time. It’s quiet, with tall trees, a little poison oak, a caretaker’s trailer, and cigarette butts ankle deep at the entrance closest to campus, […]

  • Resolution

     I don’t know if I’m afraid of heights, or afraid of getting down from heights–of not getting down–but when the guide said, it looks like rain, let’s start on the roof, I followed her up. Not wanting to miss anything, ready to add to my photo collection, eager to take in every nook and cranny […]

  • Snowmelt Drum Kit

    Barely snow, just enough for a two-hour school delay, ice encasing twigs and needles, smooth and clear and full around as if dipped, as even as a candy-maker’s dream, no Achilles’ heel or naked shortbread where anyone held on, only light, a sense of depth and sparkle, even on a dark day. The lowest branch […]