first person

The Dubliner is a series of twelve stylized first-person pieces I wrote for the alternative weekly newspaper the Philadelphia Weekly while I was living in Ireland. The column won third place for column writing in the large-circulation division from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. And I wrote 'em all in the present tense! Each installment was illustrated by Karen Klassen. Here they are in order:

“Are Ye About?” // “Twilight’s Slow Burn” // “Defacing Castles” // “Time Waits for No Woman” // “Pitching Frank O’Connor” // “Far as the I Can Sea” // “Leaving Me Softly” // “Leaving A Serious Mark” // “They’re Marching Today” // “Warming the Pub, Drowsily” // “Love, American Style” // “Sleeping Like Bono”



A short personal essay that I'm proud of has been used as an introduction to the Zine Yearbook #9 (2007), published by Microcosm. In it I mention my companion cat, the illustrious and exalted Trixie. If you want to read it, click here. They excerpted my language zine The La-La Theory, too.

I had a personal essay in the Philadelphia Inquirer (April 19, 2009) about my life in DIY.

I did a few months of grad school for literature before I realized it wasn't for me. But roaming around Ireland, reading all the while—for pleasure, for once—taught me more than I ever could have learned in school. When I got back home I wrote about reading my way through Ireland.

“I Live at Home” is an essay about how I moved back home with my mom after my father died, which I wrote for a small publication called Here magazine (now defunct). The Utne Reader reprinted it in 2002, and after it ran in Utne it got reprinted elsewhere, including a college textbook on creative writing.

“How to Become the Media”: I went to the Underground Publishing Conference in Bowling Green, OH, and wrote about it. In the second person, actually.

Summering With the Loons in Cape May is an essay I wrote about birding for the wonderful general interest newspaper/literary journal the Philadelphia Independent.

“Nerds Gone Bad” is about how linguistics dorks are cooler than hipsters.

“Falling Star” is a paean to the late, great, trashy, pre-Bonnie Fuller Star magazine

I guest-blogged for Powells, the content-heavy bookstore website. I wrote about zines, the poet H.D., an effed-up play, the dictionary, and other things. Here, look:

Science Fiction Food for Feminist Babies // Feverish Fine Small Mechanisms // A Life Less Ornery // The Pillowman and Other Stories // The Little Red Hen // An Open Letter to Mr. Schaeffer // H.D.T.V.



feature stories

I've written a number of reported stories over the years. Here are a few: My story about adults reading young adult fiction ran on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer's Magazine section and generated a bit of discussion in the blogosphere. Yeah, I said blogosphere.

I wrote about a beautiful piece of interactive digital fiction called Inanimate Alice, and the way new technologies are creating new literacies, for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Interactive fiction is unique because it's part story, part game. I wrote an article about it for the arts newspaper Art Daily too.

“Best-Case Scenario" profiles the two guys behind those ubiquitous Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook books. Don't miss the photo.

“No Rooftop Was Safe" chronicles the birth of graffiti in Philadelphia from the perspective of its early “kings.” This was the other most interesting thing I've ever written about. The article was used as a resource in the making of Bomb It! The Global Graffiti Documentary, a film produced and directed by Jon Reiss. His previous feature films include Better Living Through Circuitry, which was about rave culture.

Ye is Ye Olde The is a piece on orthography I wrote for the Independent. This is more exciting than you think it is.

The Utne Reader reprinted a piece I originally wrote for Bitch magazine on novels that deal with polygamy. I've written a number of pieces for Bitch, including an interview with the fabulous Guerrilla Girls, for which the Girls themselves made original art.

I asked a smart lady about the connection between feminism and knitting.

Two young women moved to Philadelphia from Columbus, Ohio and quickly saw that their new city was missing something important: a drag king troupe. They righted that wrong, and I wrote about their fabulous first performance. I love the photos for this one.

I wrote a story on urban foraging for the Philadelphia Inquirer and had such fun doing it. A guy named David Siller started a collaborative Google map for people to list fruit trees and other edible plants that grow in public spaces in and around the city, and I went in search of them. Some of the map’s listings took me on a wild goose chase, but others were, ya know, fruitful, like the one that led me to the juicy peach I picked and ate from a tree in South Philly. (This picture is of a fig tree I found a block away.)

In 2007 I wrote a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer called DigitaLit, for which I reported on the places where traditional literary forms meet new media and in effect create new forms. The first column profiles a writer named L. Lee Lowe, who is publishing her YA novel for free in weekly installments on her blog. Her work is very much in the DIY tradition of creating an open culture in which art is freely accessible, not to mention fluid—as long as she doesn't publish in print, Lowe can keep making changes to her book. The other columns are about:

an archive of poetry MP3s (bonus: I mention Richard Hell) // a Mexican computer that writes fiction // an e-pistolary novel // professors who teach the new literature // sneaky people who blog as their own fictional characters // an electronic-lit journal // a digital memory bank made after a school shooting // poem sparks! // digital artists who put an e- in Mail Art // poets and fiction writers in the 3-D multi-user online environment (don't call it a game) Second Life // librarians and teachers in Second Life // more ways of looking at blackbirds // books without authors // poetry podcasts with all the passion and quirk of ham radio // digital artists and writers who collaborate // a project that pays homage to Ada Lovelace, who helped invent the Analytical Engine // a musician who feeds guitar music to voice recognition software and gets words back // how old ideas about intellectual property are changing // readers who catalog their personal book collections // interactive fiction // a poet who conducted a charming tour of readings from the rooms in her apartment

books

My essay about how EXCELLENT AND IMPORTANT ZINES ARE was used as a chapter in a book called The Alternative Media Handbook, published in December of 2007 by the British academic publisher Routledge.

"Found Things" is an essay about poetry, prayer, and getting my wisdom teeth out. It was published in the anthology My Red Couch, And Other Stories On Seeking A Feminist Faith.

I wrote a little thinky essay about the creative possibilities of open-ended copyright licenses for DIY publishers, and it's in Make a Zine!, a pretty, practical book published by Microcosm.

I've also written three nonfiction YA books (grades 6-9) for the educational publisher Rosen Books (New York, NY). One of them is about Opportunities in E-Marketing (this was back when e-marketing was a term people still used). Another one is called Cool Careers Without College for Nature Lovers. Here's to doing what you love without going to college. I profiled a Christmas tree farmer, a commercial fisher, a ranch hand, an ecotourism planner, a park ranger, a whale watcher, and a river guide. I had fun talking to these interesting people about their interesting jobs. School Library Journal called the book “clearly written.” Yeah!

The third book is about the life of Negro League baseball player Monte Irvin, who I got to meet before a talk he gave at the Free Library of Philadelphia. He had some wonderful stories about the Negro Leagues and the Majors during the glory days of baseball, and about some of the jazz musicians and other famous athletes he knew back then. It was very neat.