In 2012 I did something I thought I couldn’t do, something I forgot I knew how to do, something I can’t believe I didn’t do sooner, and something I swore I would never do. Not bad, on balance. In 2013 I vow to do more something or other. And, also, update my website more often. … Continued
As I think I mentioned, Knocked Over is going to be republished next month in an anthology of writing about women’s reproductive rights forthrightly titled “Get Out of My Crotch.” Many thanks to editors Kim Wyatt and Sari Botton, who reached out to me at the very end of their publishing process with the request to … Continued
Things have been quiet here for a while, haven’t they? It was so peaceful! Ah well. I honestly thought that no one would read the internet over Labor Day weekend. I was wrong. Since The Rumpus published my essay Knocked Over: On Biology, Magical Thinking, and Choice, the response has been overwhelming. So I just want … Continued
I am over the moon about how this turned out. It just looks SO GREAT. Many many thanks to Sheila Sachs and Paul Dolan for being so very talented. So, yes, the book is on its way to a bookstore shelf near you; please, if you can, buy it from an indie, from the publisher, … Continued
Are you wondering where I’ve gone? Most of the action is over on the soup blog. And when I’m not there I’m running around trying to wrap up work on the next edition of the Soup & Bread Cookbook, to be published in November by Evanston-based Agate Publishing. It’s a hybrid: part cookbook, part social … Continued
Not exactly breaking news, since it hit the streets October 6, but for the record here’s what I’ve been working on for the last month — a feature on the agonizing bureaucratic odyssey of the shared-use Logan Square Kitchen. I have to confess here that when I hit send on the last round of revisions, … Continued
Here’s a link to another recently published something: a review in Bookforum of James Ellroy’s new memoir, the Hilliker Curse. Subtitled “My Pursuit of Women,” it’s essentially that — a twisty travelogue through his romantic life. It’s not an easy ride, though there’s much to enjoy about it. And, interestingly, for all the torment love … Continued
I spent a several weeks this summer hanging around with Sarah Kavage, creator and executor of Industrial Harvest, an elaborate — and supercool — project aimed at sorting out and making manifest the intimate relationship between the commodity futures market, the city of Chicago, and the food we eat. And then I wrote about it, … Continued
I have a piece out this week in the Reader’s annual These Parts edition on Azerbaijani-to-Wisconsin transplant Sofya Hundt and her excellent blog, Rich Food, Lean Times. If you’re in the market for a recipe for venision-blue cheese stroganoff, step-by-step instructions for pickle soup (pictured), or just some tips on tender pelmeni, she’s your girl.
Back in January I was having dinner with a friend when he launched into a description of the performance he’d attended earlier that day. The performer was a mutual friend of ours — a writer and critic who had, in the great tradition of underemployed journalists across the land, gotten himself a job in a … Continued