At Work
Always Check the Bathrooms
Whenever I’ve found someone passed out in a bathroom as a bartender, it’s because they’ve well exceeded their personal limit with alcohol. I also can’t help but think it’s because there’s been too little of something else.
Studying Nuclear Policy Without Being Engulfed By Fear
Like most people born just as the Cold War was ending, I learned about nuclear weapons in the past tense.
What Home Staging Showed Me About Housing in America
Home staging is a privileged kind of precariousness.
I Loved My Job as a Bookseller—Then Covid-19 Transformed It
Every time I tell a customer that we’re not open for browsing, I know I am reminding them of how Covid-19 has disrupted our rhythms and routines, robbed us of numerous small pleasures.
Why We Need Hospitality—Before, During, and After the Pandemic
As someone with over ten years in the industry, I still make $4.95/hour—plus tips.
By Us, for Us: Why WOC-Owned Bookstores Must Survive
When this pandemic is over, we hope to reopen our doors and offer comfort and sanctuary to our communities—as women of color so often have.
At Sea with Scientists, I Learned What It Means to Be an Explorer
We think of explorers in terms of what they discovered—the Eureka moment, not the search. The search is imperfect and frustrating and owes you nothing.
Leaving the Sisterhood of Women Writers
The more I wrote about women, the more distanced I felt from the figure I saw in the mirror.
As a Teacher and Writer, It’s Not My Job to Manage the Feelings of Men
It’s not my job to absorb every feeling a man has. In my classroom, I am the one who decides whose feelings get airtime, and how they are shared.
How My Parents, Who Loved Grapes, Lost Their Love of Winemaking
Others began to intrude in what had once been a mom-and-pop operation. The conversion from hobby to profession had been made.