A Mother's Story: The Moon to His Sun
A daughter’s attempt to solve the riddle of her mom.
Essay
A Pilot's Son, Flying Solo
A son’s memory of the father he lost at 13, excerpted from The Magical Stranger.
Death of a Building
A historic Little Rock building and its owner, before and after a catastrophic fire.
Trasmissions from Camp Trans
The author visits Camp Trans, an annual protest organized after the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival evicted a transsexual woman.
My Foreign Mom
“I love my mother a not-normal amount.”
When Our Kids Own America
Why our old narratives about race and culture “just don’t fit anymore.”
Lost in the Meritocracy
An overachiever on what he did and didn’t learn at Princeton.
I'm For Sale
On balancing creative ambition and financial security.
November 24, 1963
On the death of a brother.
Essays and Criticism
How to Be a Stuffed Animal
The history and meaning of taxidermy in American museums.
The Vulgarian in the Choir Loft
An asshole learns to sing.
My Brother’s Life, Unraveled
The story of a suicide.
On Friendship
The author examines his closest relationships.
Sick
Visiting a lost friend.
30 Rock Landed on Us
An essay on television and race.
Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?
On Luddites, “bands of men, organized, masked, anonymous, whose object was to destroy machinery used mostly in the textile industry,” and their literary spawn.
Against Joie de Vivre
Why parties, love, kids, conversation and more are so miserable (at least to Phillip Lopate).
The New Mecca
The author travels to Dubai; Arab children see snow for the first time, which is made by a Kenyan.
A Jew in the Northwest
On leaving New York for Portland.
How a Gun-Loving West Texas Girl Learned to Fear Assault Weapons
A writer’s evolving relationship with guns.
Mississippi Drift
An ill-fated trip down the river with a group of anarchists.
Joy
On joy, pleasure and Ecstacy.
When Books Could Change Your Life
On the power of youth literature.
A Triumph of the Comic-Book Novel
A consideration of Chris Ware.
