Moral Dilemmas: On Writing to "The New York Times" Ethicist
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A blog that feels its way through a fog of inspiring ideas.
Short dispatches on the things that shape my ideas as a writer, critic, and human being.
A Little Something Extra
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Over the holidays, I read Plain and Simple, a book by the late Sue Bender, an artist and psychologist who became obsessed with Amish quilts and dolls, and found a way to live among their makers. Their reality sometimes unsettled her—but it only deepened her appreciation.
Read More"Mouchette": The Privilege of the Wretched
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Mouchette, a French peasant girl whose name means “little fly,” is a pest to the people around her. Scrunched up and defensive, she clomps through a rough world where words have little value—even the ones that might save her life.
Read MoreSelena Gomez Is Giving Éponine Energy
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As a closeted teenager, I found expression for how I felt in Éponine’s unrequited love song “On My Own.” Decades later, I still hear that ache in the voices of Linda Ronstadt and Selena Gomez—singers with more than a little in common.
Read MoreHere Comes "The Sun"
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After The Sun printed my letter about an essay that moved me, I saw how the magazine keeps readers and writers in conversation about the human spirit.
Read MoreNaming What Matters: Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, and Power of the Particular
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Their cameras didn’t just capture people—they revealed relationships.
Read MoreMy Letter to "The New Yorker" on Green-Wood Cemetery
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This week, The New Yorker published my letter to the editor about Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, a place I walk through weekly, finding new things to discover each time.
Read MoreFootnotes from a Gay Sensibility
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Hairy legs, bare feet, and a sharp sense of humor: what Interview's sandal feature reveals about a gay sensibility.
Read MoreHauser at Radio City Music Hall: I Came for My Partner, I Stayed for the Feeling
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What started as a campy date night turned into something unexpectedly joyful—and strangely moving.
Read MoreWhat a Business Card Brought Back to Me
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At a book critics’ lunch, I reconnected with someone from my very first publishing job—without realizing it at first. What came back to me was a quiet moment of encouragement that stayed with me far longer than she probably knew.
Read MoreThe Book Club That Didn't Read Me
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For years, I was part of a book club that shaped how I read—just as much by what we didn’t read as what we did.
Read MoreThe Critics Who Shaped Me
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