Writer
Lately I write primarily about food and sustainability--except when I'm writing about Chicago history. Or a book review. Or some strange apples at the Cook County Jail. Not sure what that all adds up to--you figure it out!
Unless otherwise noted all pieces appeared in the Chicago Reader.
Features
May 8, 2008, "A Tale of Two Villages"
The oddly divergent paths of Chicago's Ukrainian Village and East Village.
March 13, 2008, "A Long Way From Satan's Mile"
The tawdry tale of Chicago's South Loop.
November 14, 2007, "Bad Apples"
The story of the untended orchard at Cook County Jail. (This piece orginated as part of an evening of solo performances on nature in the city produced by the Magpies.)
June 10, 2005, "Fighting Spin With Spin"
Artists and activists culture jam the Chicago Housing Authority.
April 30, 2004, "Slow Food in the Slow Lane"
Big ideas on a very small island--the first of several pieces on Wisconsin's Washington Island.
August 9, 2002, "Lost and Found" and "On the Trail of a Purloined Painting" On a mysterious cache of WPA-era woodcuts with ties to the Soviet state of Birobhidzan--and a lost bit of Chicago's artistic history.
Media and Cultural Criticism
March 17, 2006, "The Nice Magazine"
Chicago's Stop Smiling--why is it so boring?
February 2, 2001, "My Dinner With Charlie"
Unpacking Charlie Trotter's obsession with excellence. (A Peter Lisagor award finalist, and the piece I blame for getting me into food writing. A revised version of this appeared in the Baffler in 2002.)
July 14, 2000, "The Beast in the East"
What's the deal with the Exile, expat Moscow's guiltiest read?
Writing About Books
May 18, 2007, "The Year of Eating Locally"
Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith's Plenty.
January 19, 2007, "Alternative to What?"
Review of Neal Pollack's Alternadad.
August 18, 2006, "On the Inside Looking In"
Reviews of Bill Buford's Heat and Michael Ruhlman's The Reach of a Chef.
September 30, 2005, "Who Moved Her Cheese?"
Review of Barbara Ehrenreich's Bait and Switch.
November 12, 2004, "The Mathematics of Success"
Profile of YA author Hillary Frank.
November 14, 2003, "Bookslut Rising"
Lit blogger Jessa Crispin does Chicago.
November 15, 2002, "Making a Scene"
Would more cocktail parties make Chicago the literary hotbed it should be? Probably not.
October 5, 2001, "Irony In the Crosshairs"
On Alex Shakar's The Savage Girl--and the much-hyped end of irony after 9/11.
Writing About Food
December 13, 2007 "An Artisanal Empire"
Another Washington Island story, this one about the Chicago launch of Death's Door Spirits.
August 24, 2007 "A Chicago Beer, Brewed Right Here in Wisconsin"
On Chicago's Half Acre Beer.
Profile of Pilsen's Mundial Cocina Mestiza.
July 28, 2006, "Cheese Whizzes"
On the cheese documentary, Living on the Wedge.
April 14, 2006, "Saving Kendall"
A look inside the surprising rebirth of of one of Chicago's premier culinary schools. (pdf)
February 10, 2006, "Little Kitchen, Big Food"
One of the first pieces on the much-lauded Schwa.
Miscellany
From November 2006 to September 2007 I ran this blog. (Look in the archives if you're curious.)
April 27, 2007, "The Nest Issue" Short profiles of DIY home improvements
Short reviews of books by Jonathan Lethem, Tom Zoellner, and Paula Kamen.
And from September 2004 to July 2005 I wrote a weekly arts and entertainment calendar for the Reader. Here's a representative sample.