At the end of summer a few years ago, I scoped out an empty spot in my garden to plant the mystery daylily I gleaned from a wooden box at farmers market. A handwritten sign on a popsicle stick above the dug-up leftovers invited passers-by to “Take one, or not.” I took one, soil still… …

When the heroine of my forthcoming novel, Candlewood, moves to New York City in 1979 to reinvent herself, she stays at the Barbizon Hotel for Women. Although she arrives there through a series of mishaps, she finds herself at the iconic address that launched many a dreamer. Paulina Bren, recent …

This January finds me contemplating the underneath of things. Creatures tunnel under the snow making unseen paths, communicating with each other in the dark, feeding each other twigs and nuts, maps and news. And then, one day they emerge. I see their tracks tight and close along fences and rock …

What’s a cathedral to do when its beloved tabby climbs the Tree of Life for the last time? Give it a fine sendoff, of course. London’s Southwark Cathedral did just that for their feline friend who mewed among its pews for the last dozen years. Thousands who had come to know the stray, dubbed …

For a reminder of how we got to the Black Lives Matter movement and a resurgence of caste systems in America, read We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White. Two college friends find divergent paths to address the inequities they become aware of in the persons of black housekeepers. Their …

As a writer, I understand that the choice of words, and their nuance, can make all the difference in the way my readers see a character, an idea, a story. This year, the Catholic Bishops of the United States learned that lesson. They provoked a firestorm by using the words “preeminent priority” to …

The January 2020 Golden Globes confirmed what the Emmys told us last fall—the search for meaning is alive and well. Fleabag skyrocketed to attention this year in a field of television programs replete with lonely characters dissatisfied with life—and looking for a better way. Meantime, the Pew …