PERSONAL ESSAYS
Sour Cream

[media-credit name=”Laurie Wang ” align=”alignnone” width=”4445″]   The contents of the fridge in 18 Wilhelmstrasse Apartment 7D: Two pieces of celery, one bull’s heart tomato, […]

Ralph

I would soon identify that time of year as “around Ralph’s birthday” or “about to open the pool,” but at the time I considered it […]

Waste management

My mother filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on a Monday, not long after I turned 19. Six months later, a paper appeared on our porch. […]

42nd Street Shuttle

A man fell on the subway today. I was watching people slip through the metal doors connecting our car to the next, this door then […]

Trace

I’m staring at my skull. Or, more accurately, my jaw: lower left molars glow in one black-and-white snapshot, upper left molars in another, teeth foreign […]

I Will Be Back, Nairobi

I wonder if you miss me, Nairobi. I wonder who massages your back with her feet now that I am not around. I know you cried, […]

Between the Objects of the World

Mid-September. The Litchfield Turnpike is taking me north, past the last overpasses and traffic lights of the suburban world. North, to Bethany. Up here, there […]

From the Forge

Nothing prepares you to handle a pickaxe for the first time. You don’t anticipate the heft of it, the welt of solid iron, the brutishness […]

Awake

February 2, 2013  This begins in the graveyard, which, today, is actually a cheery place. It’s Saturday. It’s sunny. It’s warm for February. There are […]

The Shock of the Nu

The Nugrape Twins recorded six tracks for Columbia Records between 1926 and 1927 — four gospel tunes (including “Pray Children if You Want to Go […]

Compress and Expand

Architects talk about compression and expansion. It is one of architecture’s fundamental techniques, and it has become a trope. The meaning is vague, but understood […]