Read “No ‘I’ in Travel?: Travel writing in the Trump era” in The Startup

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Travel writing has a long and storied history, dating back to the time of Herodotus. But what is the place of travel writing in the 21st century?

Should travel writing be written by a traveler, or by people who live in the places being written about in question? Should travel writing use the first-person perspective? And how should travel journalists frame their coverage in the age of Trump?

I try to address these questions in my review of The Best American Travel Writing 2019 anthology: “No ‘I’ in Travel: Travel writing in the Trump era” published in The Start Up, Medium’s largest publication. Check it out at the above hyperlink; I hope it can at least distract you from the terrible public health crisis afflicting the globe.

Stay inside and wash your hands!

Read “The Duel Doctor in Weehawken” in Princeton Alumni Weekly

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Curious about the connection between the Hamilton-Burr duel, grave-robbing, the US’s first botanical garden, and Rockefeller Center?

Today, Dr. David Hosack is mostly known as the attendant doctor during the Hamilton-Burr duel, a role which overshadowed his career as a leading American physician and botanical pioneer.

Read my latest piece in Princeton Alumni Weekly about David Hosack, one of America’s “founding physicians.”

Art by Daniel Hertzberg for PAW. 

 

 

Read “In Texas, a tale of two cities” on Medium

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Working from home today? Tired of reading about COVID-19?

Maybe you’ll read about Texas. Last week, I got the chance to spend time in San Antonio and Austin, TX during the 2020 AWP Conference (which, of course, was marred by the then-dawning novel coronavirus pandemic).

During my travels, what I learned was this: If San Antonio offers a glimpse of Texas’ past, Austin might just yet be a glimpse of its future.

Check out my new travel piece on the divergent trajectories of San Antonio and Austin, TX, from my Medium blog.

Reading at Reno’s Coffee N’ Comics, Monday, January 20

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On Monday, January, 20, I’m happy to announce I’ll be part of a group of local writers reading at the latest, “Writer’s Resist” event, to be held at Reno, Nevada’s Coffee N’ Comics on Monday, January 20 from 6-8 PM.

I’ll be reading a short piece on the uncanny similarities between our current times and the bonkers 1920 administration of President Warren G. Harding. Hope to see y’all there.

Read “The Rise of Skywalker’s Story Problem” on Medium

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Two years ago, I wrote The Last Jedi had a ‘snark problem,’ a critique that resonated with more than 10k readers and was featured as an audio story (!).

Well, this time The Rise of Skywalker has a ‘story problem’—a cavalier attitude toward storytelling that renders the movie into a series of cheap workarounds which discount the intelligence of its audience and bely its creators’ indifference to their own work, showcasing a greater problem in popular entertainment more generally.

Read my latest Star Wars review on Medium (spoiler alert). Thanks for reading!

“Falling” to be published in Flying Ketchup Press’ “Tales from the Deep” in Spring 2020

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I’m thrilled to announced my short story, “Falling,” will be published this spring in Tales from the Deep, an anthology of fantasy, horror and science fiction.

The anthology will be the product of Flying Ketchup Press, a small press based in Kansas City, MO, and be published sometime after May 2020.

“Falling” is a gothic horror retelling of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House for the Kaufmann family in Pennsylvania.

In the story, retail scion Edward Zeliger Jr. (a fictional representation of E. J. Kaufmann Jr.) becomes fascinated with a mysterious architect (a portrayal of Wright), who Edward Jr.’s father has hired to build their family’s country house. But The Architect’s sublime (and perhaps supernatural) work strives to achieve harmony with nature, a process which has devastating effects on the Zeliger family—and leads Edward Jr. along the dark path constructed by the master builder.

In July 2019, Fallingwater was proclaimed a World Heritage Site. So it is fitting that, a year later, this short story—an appreciation yet cautionary tale about Wright’s work—will reach the wider world. Thanks to all the beta readers who helped shape it!

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Fallingwater. Photo by Harrison Blackman, August 2018.