Remembering the Dead
What impressed me the most in Milan was the sprawling, art-infused graveyard known as Cimitero Monumentale di Milano. Here are my best cemetery pictures and favorite grief quotes in honor of the dead.
To Tell or Not to Tell: Speaking about Work in Progress
Some authors refuse to speak about their work in progress. They don’t want to contaminate their fragile ideas with other people’s opinions. Or they fear colleagues might steal their plans before they can finish the book. Or they don’t want…
Blind Man’s Bluff
Blind Man’s Bluff by James Tate Hill is a beautifully honest and funny memoir on blindness. Or more accurately, on how the author, struck by a serious eye disease at age sixteen, tried to hide his disability from friends and…
Thick Bleeding Numbers
The young woman for whom I was writing down my number stayed kind. She didn’t question my inability to accomplish a task so simple or judge me for my incompetence.
Things to Do in Palermo: Visit the Monastery of Santa Caterina
From 1311 to 2014 the Monastery of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria was the home of dominican nuns. Nowadays, the place is a museum that gives visitors an idea of what living there must have been like. Each nun had a baby…
Unfocused: Secretly Sad
My mother’s illness and death have left me dangling. After we buried her in July, my life went on, yet I felt paused. Grief consumed my energy and emotions overwhelmed me when least expected.
