The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Proving the Power of Markets
Kamila Sidiqi is The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, and her powerful story symbolizes just how much good business can do at truly impossible times. When the Taliban swept through Kabul and took power in...
View ArticleA Zoo in My Family
When the manuscript for my book was doing time in slush piles, an editor suggested I read some other memoirs. Actually, she said "autobiographies," because that was what editors still called them way...
View ArticleOn Flying
April Fool's Day is sort of fun, until you have children. Then it becomes a day when you don't answer the phone. Ring... ring... Hello? Mom! Mom! I broke my leg! I'm pregnant! I got pulled over with an...
View ArticleA Fire Problem or a People Problem?
Judging by news headlines and TV pictures, fire season has become a nearly year-round spectacle in America. It's almost always fire season somewhere, from the Everglades of Florida to the forests of...
View ArticleIn the Spirit of George Plimpton
Since I've always wanted to be a writer, I fancied going on from my BA in English to get an MFA in fiction and finding my literary path with the great teachers at Columbia or Iowa — drinking gin at...
View ArticleIn Defense of Irrelevance
My older son is lately being asked by his sixth-grade English teacher (in increasingly suspicious tones to match the rebellious doubtfulness of his resistant replies), "What do you think the writer is...
View ArticleSUBJECT: Minor Characters Who Should Be Less Minor
Some years ago I was reading a New Yorker article about folk singer and political activist Pete Seeger. I'm not particularly interested in Pete Seeger, but I often read about things I'm not interested...
View ArticleOne Drawing for Every Page of “Moby-Dick”: Another Orphan
Finishing was the hardest part.Finishing was the hardest part. When I began, I identified quite a bit with Ishmael. Here was this man who had been struggling with a November in his soul and decided it...
View ArticleIn the Kitchen with a Deadline
When I have a writing deadline approaching, you'll probably find me in the kitchen. It's horrible, I know, but when I work with a deadline, I tend to find elective domestic projects — cooking, baking,...
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