On Friday the 13th, a day after the third 2019 Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders visited UNR, a campus with a checkered history of white nationalist activity.
You can read my take on the proceedings, the second in my series of creative nonfiction blog posts on presidential candidates visiting Reno, on Medium.
Thanks for reading! Follow my Medium profile for more essays on politics, movies, and storytelling.
I’m excited to announce I’ll be reading at the 6th Annual Nevada Humanities’ Literary Crawl held in Downtown Reno on Saturday, September 14, 2019.
I’ll be part of a group of UNR MFA students reading from 1:30 – 2:15 PM at Washoe Public House on the subject of “Bodies!”
Looking forward to being part of this great literary event in the Biggest Little City of the World!
Learn more about Litcrawl at their website, and read the full program of events here.
At last week’s “Writers for Migrant Justice” event in Reno, I presented an essay I’d been thinking about writing for a long time, explaining why Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) is an irresponsible film. Since I watched that film for the first time, the news has made the film more relevant as an example of the spread of misinformation through fiction.
I’ve since adapted that text for Medium. In this post, I explain the danger of stories that purport to be about real issues but indulge in problematic fantasies.
Thanks for reading!
(Photo by Rachel Lynette French on Unsplash)
On April 25, 2019, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke visited the University of Nevada-Reno as part of a campaign tour of Northern Nevada. While Beto once was a media darling, of late he’s struggled to break through the crowded Democratic field. Will his presence in Nevada change that?
Here’s my creative nonfiction take on the proceedings, available on my blog on Medium.
Thanks for reading!
This week, The Nassau Weekly, a weekly newspaper at Princeton University, published an issue honoring its 40th anniversary. The Nass was founded in 1979 by three students, including David Remnick, current editor of The New Yorker. I became a contributor to the Nass in my senior year, and I’m glad it was part of my undergraduate experience.
I’m pleased to have an essay published in this issue, concerning a particular running accident I experienced as a freshman member of the Princeton Running Club in 2013. Though I suffered a severe injury, the event was infused with a humorous irony which made it quite revealing of human nature. Thanks to the ‘Nass’ for letting me share my story, available at this link.
Why is climate change so hard to write about?
Half a century ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring catalyzed the budding environmental movement. Since then, most environmental communicators, particularly those dealing with climate change, have followed the rhetorical model of Silent Spring.
But Silent Spring is a terrible model for talking about climate change. In my essay for Anthroposphere: The Oxford Climate Review, I explain why that is—and what might be necessary to change the way we talk about climate change.
Available in print for purchase on Anthroposphere’s web site, and now available online at this link.
Many thanks to the editors from The Oxford Climate Society at Oxford University for making this article possible.
Two years ago, I and five other Princeton journalism students had the opportunity to report on the refugee crisis in Greece. My main project—an investigation into Greek language education for refugees—was never published. Since then, recent NYTimes and WashPost reporting has revealed the situation has only become worse at the Athenian and island camps we visited.
I share my old project now as a historical document and as a call to action. While America seethes in intra-political turmoil, there are bigger things happening all over the world.
(For more reporting on this issue, check out NYTimes’ latest piece on Moria: https://www.nytimes.com/…/europe/greece-lesbos-moria-refuge…)
On September 15, 2018 I had the extraordinary opportunity of giving a talk at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece, where I discussed the 1960 plans of architect Constantinos Doxiadis for Eastwick, Philadelphia, featuring some ‘cameo’ appearances from Robert Kennedy and Kevin Bacon. You can watch the talk here, courtesy the Bodossakis Foundation. Many thanks to Simon Richards and Mantha Zarmakoupi of the Delos Network for inviting me and allowing me to speak on this subject, one that has occupied my globetrotting research for the past three years.
The Delos Network is an initiative sponsored by the UK Arts & Humanities Council, with academic support from University of Birmingham, Loughborough University, and the University of Pennsylvania. This was the second of three conferences to discuss the work of global architect and urban planner Constantinos Doxiadis (1913-1975), the first such conferences in over a decade.
Thanks to the Delos Network and the University of Nevada, Reno, for financially supporting my visit.
On August 9, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the U.S. will proceed with President Trump’s plan to create the United States Space Force, the sixth branch of the U.S. military. As you might guess, the announcement was met with controversy.
It’s a good thing that we have so many sci-fi stories that have considered the possibility of the militarization of space. In this blog post, I look at seven sci-fi stories with different takes on what a real-life Space Force might entail.
Last June, I had the opportunity to visit Vergina, a small village in Northern Greece that is home to the tomb of Philip II, Alexander the Great’s father. It was a tremendous experience, full of the power and splendor of ancient Macedonia. In terms of the difficulty in navigating Greece’s public transit options, however, it amounted to a modern odyssey. The perfect exp
To read my travelogue of my visit to Vergina, full of awe, frustration, and some witty observations, check it out on Medium:
“The elusive star of Vergina: To visit the tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, a modern odyssey”
More summer travel memoirs forthcoming on Medium. If you’re looking for a hint—next up will be along the lines of “Coming into the country with ‘Coming into the Country’.”
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Photo of fields of Vergina by Harrison Blackman.
