So many writers have responded to the poems and person of Emily Dickinson that it seems extravagant, even self-indulgent, to add another word. Adrienne Rich, in her eloquent essay, “Vesuvius at Home: […]
Literary Foremothers: Emily Dickinson and Me
Replacement Silverware and the Chuck Norris Effect
I acquired my all-time favorite silverware inadvertently. I was looking for Christmas gifts in T.J. Maxx and perusing the home wares aisles. This was back in 1995, and I was shopping for […]
How to Have a Merry Family Christmas
Getting together with family for the holidays is something many of us look forward to with mixed emotions. There’s the excitement of knowing you’ll see loved ones, and the reality of ongoing […]
Giving Thanks for the Modern Medical Miracle of DBS
One thing people might not know about Parkinson’s is how difficult it is to diagnose. The early symptoms of Parkinson’s—shakiness, muscle stiffness, impaired balance, and depression—are common to myriad illnesses and begin […]
A Skeptic’s Ghost Story
I’d like to say I don’t believe in ghosts, the spirits that haunt the human world after the body has ceased to contain them. Ghosts have stories; they haunt a place, […]
Texas, Oh Texas
–After “The Beautiful” by Michelle Tea Belly up, back down on scratch grass growing in cracked black soil, my childhood fingers slipped inside the cracked handles of the earth. High winds pushed […]
What Our Dreams Can Mean
One of the most satisfying dreams I ever had was incredibly violent. I was a teenager in my dream, leading my friends through a maze-like neighborhood, while a group of bullies followed […]
The Best Girl Scout Leader in the World
Girl Scout Motto: Be Prepared The Girl Scouts is an early twentieth-century organization founded by women, for women. Being a Girl Scout from 1969 until 1974, from second grade through sixth grade, […]
Crime of the Month: Predatory Landlords
The Crime of the Month is greed, the kind of greed perpetrated by Westwind Enterprises, a private-equity firm. Located in San Jose, California, Westwind Enterprises is a predatory private-equity firm that buys […]
Turning into My Mother
The older I get, the more I feel my mother inhabiting my body. I’ve recently cut my hair in an attempt to gray gracefully, and when I look in the mirror, […]
The Gloria Sirens 