The Girl in the Mall
Growing up in my rural Ohio town, the mall was our refuge. It could also be dangerous.
My Summer of Steel
Before my junior year of college, in 1972, I worked at the manufacturing plant where my father was a foreman. It was an education.
Grasping at Shifting Sands
On the eroding shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron, a buried eighteenth-century lumber port, and the stakes of inaction.
A History of the Pride Flag in My Doorway
Notes on living and moving as an out queer person in the Rust Belt.
Around Lake Michigan on the Circle Tour
Sixty years ago, my parents took us on a driving tour of Lake Michigan, the quintessential Midwest road trip.
Ode to Olcott
Olcott, New York—"The French Riviera of Lake Ontario"—has sunk and rebounded in a way so minor, yet major enough to feel like a triumph.
The Suburbs are Stunned
An excerpt from the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook.
What It’s Like to Work at a Food Pantry During the Pandemic
In a world of scarcity, food pantries—like the one where I work in Chicago—make room for abundance.
Vaccinating Your Elderly Parents: The Board Game
A comic about navigating the Ohio coronavirus vaccination system.
Coming of Age Between Somalia and Columbus
On moving, 9/11, and reckoning with the names and places that made you who you are.
John Edgar Wideman and Writing to Save Lives
Re-reading Wideman's "Writing to Save a Life" in an era of racist violence.
Except for the Cancer I’m Fine
"Is disease something we’re born with and prone to, or the result of a life lived in a place that can make anyone sick?”