There are two men in our small city who have become familiar figures to most of us. Lean and weathered, they push loaded carts along the streets and sidewalks; unlike most street people they are keen-eyed and determined; they seem to know where...
Where is the Kindness in Fiction?
I have always been a fiction writer at heart, but before I committed myself fully to fiction, I worked in film, writing screenplays and directing films, simultaneously teaching film production and screenwriting. It’s a cardinal rule in...
When the Body Changes, Are You the Same Person?
There is a story my father used to tell about me as a toddler. It was winter and we were outside in the snow, my three-year-old sister on tiny skis, me sitting on a toboggan, both of us bundled in snowsuits. A friend complimented my sister on her...
Recreational Eating
Hooray for the mouth. Sing its praises. Such a versatile capable orifice. Gateway to the stomach, conduit for food and drink. Home to the tongue and teeth. Framed by soft pink lips. The mouth speaks. Sings. Whispers. Shouts. Blows. Swallows...
Expect Catastrophe
I have always loved reading about science. It often makes me wish I’d become a science writer. There is so much wonder and mystery in science, so much that is known and so much yet to be discovered. But I have developed an unfortunate habit of...
Getting Older, Knowing Less
As a novelist, I consider it my job to portray people accurately on the page. I allow myself to fabricate any number of alternative realities, but I must always populate them with recognizable people whose behavior is guided by the impulses...
When Life Narrows
A moment stands out to me from my early forties, possibly my late thirties. I had just gotten pictures back from development—it was pre-digital days—and I was sorting through them to decide which to put in our album. My husband pointed to one he...
Drooling Woman With Inner Life
Back when I was in elementary school, there were always kids who were pariahs. Kids with certain kinds of deformities, or speech impediments, or habits of drooling. We knew we were not supposed to mock these kids, and so we didn’t taunt them...
What’s New as Summer Draws to a Close
When I was a kid and my family was driving back from our annual August vacation in New Hampshire, my mother would always break into song. “On the browning fields the spider spins, and the lambs no longer play, and the cricket now his chirp...
The Seduction of Fire
The crackle and pop, its sensuous mercurial dance, its shifting colors—red, orange, white, blue, purple, green— the mysterious glow of the embers, the impossibility of grasping it in your hand. Fire galvanizes our attention as few other natural...