Giving Up Christmas
Tablet Magazine, December 19, 2012
When people hear that I converted to Judaism, the first question they ask is, “Don’t you miss Christmas?” {link to story}
Writing on the Edge, Fall 2011
Silence would seep into the room, crossed legs would swing, papers would be shuffled whenever it came to giving manuscript feedback in my MFA workshops. {link to story}
Waiting in the Dark
Prime Number Magazine, July 2011
On the third day, they move Harry, my husband, to a private room. We return from his smoking break to find we have a different view. {link to story}
The White World
Kaleidoscope, Winter 2010/11
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about my visits to Tante Herta in her nursing home in Wiesbaden, Germany, is the color white. {link to story}
Betty Crocker in Bavaria
Natural Bridge, Summer 2010
Building a new life is never a clear-cut undertaking. You might live somewhere else from what you consider your native soil, in a different country even. {link to story}
Traces
Bellevue Literary Review, Spring 2007, nominated for a Pushcart Prize
When I think of you, I see railroad tracks tracing silver lines through a bluish black night. {link to story}
Images Past and Present
Under the Sun, 2006
Camel-colored houses seam the side street. Now and then a store front in coral red, dark brown, or mind green breaks up the monotony. Above a shop sign featuring a faded pear, a window is wide open, a bowl of dough set out to bask in the sun. [...] My brother Klaus and I are visiting Liberec, a city one hour north of Prague. It was our grandparents' hometown and used to be called Reichenberg. {link to story}
Paris - Dans La Rue
South Loop Review, 2005
When I lived in Germany, I visited Paris every year. The nonchalance of the city was liberating. {link to story}
A Room of His Own
Flashquake, Summer 2004
republished in A Cup of Comfort for Couples, 2010
My husband's room is at the back of our apartment next to the kitchen. How many times have I walked by and wanted to haul out his clutter and hurl it into the trash? {link to story}
Washington Independent Review of Books
It's OK to Lie in Memoir
April 23, 2013
If memoir is the genre of truth, how could it possibly be acceptable to lie? Wasn’t James Frey fried because he lied? And yet, I venture to say that it is indeed OK to lie in memoir. {link to essay}
What is Memoir?
March 20, 2013
Memoir is the genre du jour, the one people talk about, get upset about, or want to write themselves. Memoir is such a buzz word that it gets slapped on personal stories, whether applicable or not. {link to essay}
Q&A with Leslie Maitland, Crossing the Borders of Time
March 13, 2013
Leslie Maitland’s Crossing the Borders of Time is a story that is too good to be true: a saga of escape and survival and of star-crossed lovers, separated by the Holocaust and family intervention. {link to interview}
The Privilege of Teaching Memoir
November 6, 2012
When I mention that I teach memoir writing, I often get the reaction, “You must hear a lot of heavy stuff.” {link to essay}
Q&A with Wenguang Huang, The Little Red Guard
October 4, 2012
In a country where cremation is mandatory, the narrator’s grandmother insists on a traditional burial and persuades his father to build a coffin, in this memoir of an ordinary Chinese family during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. {link to interview}
Q&A with Sara Mansfield Taber, Born Under an Assumed Name
July 24, 2012
In her memoir Born under an Assumed Name, Sara Mansfield Taber explores what it means to be American. Born in Japan, her early childhood is spent on the colorful streets of late 1950s and early 1960s Taiwan, where her father works for the CIA. {link to interview}
Q&A with Tracy Crow, Eyes Right
June 5, 2012
In the late ’70s, Tracy Crow joined the Marine Corps, not quite sure what she was signing up for. While she couldn’t, as a woman, serve in a combat unit, she nevertheless fought during her entire 10 years as a Marine, primarily to prove herself. {link to interview}
Journalistic
Choosing Preschool Instead of a Nanny
Parent to Parent, Spring 2013
Don't get me wrong. Nannies are wonderful. My children had to great nannies. [...] But there comes a point when parents wonder whether it's time for preschool. {link to article}
A Preschool Teacher's Tips on How to Ease Separation Anxiety
Parent to Parent, Fall 2012
"Fake it until you make it." {link to article}
Teachers Tips to Ease the Transition to First Grade
Parent to Parent, Fall 2011
"So much about school is about being comfortable." {link to article}
'Ambassadors' Bring Israel to Akiba-Schechter
JUF News, February 2010
"Each of us is a small light, together we shine so bright." In big red and yellow letters, this slogan recently graced the front hallway at Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School in Chicago. {link to article}
How to Volunteer When You're Crazy Busy
Chicago Parent, Making the Grade, January 2010
Three years ago, I became board president of my children's elementary school, a role that was never on my list of lifetime goals. {link to article}
