i’m not good with asking for help. a year ago, the day before my 29th birthday, i twisted my ankle, fell in the middle of traffic and resisted someone’s arm when they offered it. when i was fifteen and dislocated my knee at a football game, i pushed everyone away, said i could manage it [...]

i get stacks of books pitched for review by my lit mag, and yesterday, while mainlining tea like it’s no one’s business, i sifted through the piles to find this gem put out by Picador: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by well-known hip-hop journalist , Jeff Chang. What the [...]

i suppose that the end of the year lends itself to some sort of review. in the midst of walking and walking, taking time off, reading indulgent (although a teacher of mine once remarked that there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure – there is a guilt and there is pleasure, end of [...]

it took about an hour and a half from soho to my home in park slope. not the most ideal way of commuting, however, there’s something awesome about walking over the brooklyn bridge at night. an indigo sky, the lights, walking above water…all my life i’ve lived here and i’ve never crossed the bridge [...]

i wish people would have more perspective. stop complaining, stop the bitterness. stop the constant negative vibe. it’s subsuming, it’s exhausting. every misstep is a traumatic event, always taken to the dark place. no, you need not be a shiny, happy person, however, instead of focusing on what you don’t have, what you can’t do, [...]

in my yoga studio, one after one, people leaned in to me, curious. the paula fox memoir tumbling out of my bag, only with nabokov’s pnin and here i am, reading sylvester and the magic pebble. over dinner, i tell my friends how difficult it is to write a fine children’s book, one [...]

i’m at the end of my rope. i’ve been patient, i’ve been friendly, i’ve been firm. however, i need a new web host service. reliable service where i don’t come home from my birthday dinner to find that my whole address book and all file folders for small spiral notebook have mysteriously vanished.
i’m done. [...]

sellin’ some stuff on ebay, folks: gucci shoes, donna karan dresses, dvds, and other fab items. More items added daily as I plan to dump all the items i never wear or use. buy today!

the latest issue is telling. even before i started to assemble the stories, a friend emailed me on my poetry pushcart nominations: ready to flee? she asked playfully and i hadn’t realized all the poems had a similar theme of traveling, of movement from place to place in search of sustenance or escape. and as [...]

as my friend jules calls it. this week has been a delicious blur of pasta in brown butter sage sauce, glasses of red wine and energetic (everyone’s got somethin’ somethin’ cooking on the stove and it’s brilliant) conversations with dear friends, celebratingmy foray into my dirty thirties. tomorrow ushers in another tight gathering at a [...]

for the past year, i’d left behind a style of yoga that i’d been practicing for almost five years – Anusara. for a while, i’d frequent only one studio, study with a handful of teachers, and believed in one guiding philosophy, and i remembered at one point, last year, i wanted more. i wanted to [...]

after an long, and i mean, LONG overdue dish session at my favorite restaurant in town, I finally got to congratulate my grad school pal, elisa albert, in person about her most auspicious achievement: her story collection/novel deal with s&s (her story collection debuts in june). for the first time in a very long time [...]

she’s five years old, regal, a bit of a diva. soft, playful and affectionate…my birthday (my 3oth) is a week from today and i’ve given myself the gift that keeps on giving….

a cat. and damn is she foxy with her green eyes and tuxedo coat.
no doubt pictures of little sophie (her previous owners have another [...]

Always the same. The deliberate consciousness of Americans so fair and smooth-spoken, and the under-consciousness so devilish. Destroy! destroy! destroy! hums the under-consciousness. Love and produce! Love and produce! cackles the upper consciousness. And the world hears only the Love-and- produce cackle. Refuses to hear the hum of destruction underneath. Until such time as it [...]

books i’ve read thus far, this year…these are my favorites:
With or Without You – Lauren Sanders
Desperate Characters – Paula Fox
Nice Big American Baby – Judy Budnitz
The History of Love – Nicole Krauss
You Don’t Have to Live Here – Natasha Rodjcic
My Happy Life – Lydia Millet
Willful Creatures – Aimee Bender
Despair – Vladimir Nabokov
The Stories of John [...]