Fall in Pando, the world's largest aspen clone, Fishlake National Forest, Utah I heard social worker and researcher Brené Brown say recently on her thought-provoking podcast, “We’re all susceptible to information that delivers us from pain.” There are so many people in pain in America right now. Actual physical pain—the pain of abuse, addiction, withdrawal, …
These past few months have been difficult even for those of us who haven't been sick or lost loved ones or been laid off, and on top of the coronavirus pandemic there have been a spate of tragic killings of Black people by police, as well as other racist incidents like the confrontation in Central …
The definition of the term “good” is always culturally informed. What are our values? What values did we inherit—from our families, our friends, our communities, our claimed identities? Aaron Sorkin thinks he has goodness, but not everyone does.
Happy New Year, friends! I hope 2020 is off to a great start for you and your loved ones. I've been under the weather all year, but as they say, no place to go but up! Anyway, as the clock hit midnight on New Years Eve and our neighbors ignited all manner of fireworks, I …
Matt Maloney and I married in a spectacularly sunny ceremony at the Red Reflet Ranch in Ten Sleep, Wyoming on September 14, 2019. We had an unprogrammed Quaker-style ceremony, meaning there was no officiant. Quakers believe that no one person is more divine than any other; they believe that all people have God or divinity …
These last few months have moved at a breakneck pace! Defend my master's thesis, finish graduate school, finish teaching undergraduate course, leave my job at Colorado Review, find a new job, pack and move to Utah, unpack, plan my wedding, start a new job... and--oh yeah--try to squeeze in some time writing and some time outside amid …
If you happen to be in the vicinity of Colorado's Front Range this week and want to hear some poems, please come hear me read from my thesis manuscript (that I just finished writing!!) alongside the inimitable and brilliant poet Emma Hyche. Here are the deets: Thursday, April 11 7PM Gregory Allicar Museum of Art …
It’s a sentiment we hear debated a lot these days: love the art, hate the artist. Is this possible? What if the artist in question used the fame, wealth, and power they earned from making their art to hurt others? On the one hand, it’s impossible to separate art from its creator. On the other, …
I don't feel like a very patriotic person these days. I'm not proud of America—neither now nor of our past. I don't really understand what American culture is and, when I do, it makes me sad and angry to think that foreigners associate Americans with loud, pushy, short-sentenced, nouveau riche, white men. At a Gillian …
Popular media often depicts rapists as mentally ill monsters. This falsehood does harm, and not just to those struggling with mental illness. It allows rapists to say, I didn’t rape anyone; as you can see, I’m clearly neither mentally ill nor a monster. They think their clean bill of mental health and normal, human appearance …
