Other Writing

Short Stories

• “I Love Nothing Like a Tuba.” Concord Free Press Presents,  2019
• “Numbers 1 2 3 4.” Hayden’s Ferry Review  (#50, Spring/Summer 2012): 1-2.
• “The Mourning Door.”  Ploughshares, Vol. 26 #2 & 3, Gish Jen, guest ed. (Summer, 2000): 80-89.
  • Reprinted in Best American Short Stories 2001, Barbara Kingsolver, guest ed.,  Katrina Kenison, ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). 85-97.
  • Prize Stories 2001: The O. Henry Awards, Guest Editors: Mary Gordon, Michael Chabon, Mona Simpson; series editor, Larry Dark, (Anchor/Doubleday).  191-199.
  • Pushcart Prize XXVI: Best of the Small Presses, Bill Henderson, ed. (Pushcart Press, 2002). 256-265.
  • Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft, Todd Pierce and Ryan Van Cleave, eds., (Allyn & Bacon/Longman, 2005).
  • Before: Stories of Pregnancy from Our Top Writers, Ed. Emily Franklin (Overlook Press, 2006): 63-72.
• “Surtsey.”  Doubletake (Summer 2000): 92-98.
  • Reprinted in  Passing the Word: Writers on their Mentors, Jeffrey Skinner, Lee Martin, eds.  (Sarabande Books, 2001). 131-152.
• “Touch and Go.”  Story (Autumn, 1999): 42-49.
• “Islands Without Names.”American Fiction, Vol. 9, A. Davis, M. White, eds. (New Rivers Press: 1997): 23-35.  Story selected by Joyce Carol Oates.
• “Dream of the Stolen Skirt.” Fiction, Vol.14, #2 (Summer 1997): 213-214.
• “A Place Not There.” Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Prose (Fall 1996): 141-149.
  • Reprinted in Best Underground Fiction, Scott Miles, ed. (Stolen Time Publishing, 2006), Eds. Scott Miles and Jeff Mikos.  198-211.
• “Vines and Other Climbing Plants.” Story  (Summer 1996): 12-24.
• “Mammals.” Chick-Lit 2:  New Women’s Fiction Anthology, C. Mazza, J. DeShell, E. Sheffield, eds. (Fiction Collective 2: 1996): 106-113.
• “Halogen.” Glimmer Train (Fall 1995): 69-86.
• “What Kind of Boy.”  Southwest Review, Vol. 80, #2 & 3  (Spring 1995): 260-271.
  • Reprinted in An Intricate Weave: Women Write About Girls and Girlhood, Marlene Miller, ed. (Iris Editions: 1997): 184-196.
  • Lost On Purpose: Women in the City, Amy Prior, ed. (Seal Press/Avalon Books, 2004). 153-166.
• “Scavenger Bird.” Ploughshares, Gary Soto, guest ed. (Spring,1995): 94-108.
• “Between.” Story (Autumn 1994): 44-55.
  • Reprinted in Strictly Casual: Fiction By Women On Love, Amy Prior, ed. (Serpent’s Tail, UK: 2003): 1-19.
  • Inappropriate Random: Stories on Sex and Love, Amy Prior, ed. (Seal Press, New York, 2003). 1-22.
  • Prize Stories 1996: The O. Henry Awards, William Abrahams, ed. (Anchor/Doubleday: 1996): 285-300.
  • Adult Development and Learning: Multicultural Stories, S. Merriam and L. Baumgartner, eds. (Kreiger: 1999): 129-141.
• “Three Mothers.”  Boston Review (April 1994).
  • Reprinted in Writers Harvest, William Shore, ed. (Harcourt Brace: 1994):  265-268.
• “Have You Seen Me?” Antaeus 67 (Autumn 1991): 20-33.
  • Reprinted in  20: Best of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, John Edgar Wideman, ed. (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2001):  210-225.
  • Sacred Ground: Writings About Home, Barbara Bonner, ed. (Milkweed Editions:  1996): 150-166.
• “The Counting Game.” Seventeen (October 1991): 112-124.
• “The Blue Hour.”  Prism International 29, 2 (January 1991): 63-73.
• “The Boy Who Fell Forty Feet.” Stanford Humanities Review (Winter 1991).
  • Reprinted in Prize Stories 1994: The O. Henry Awards (Anchor/Doubleday: 1994): 216-228.
• “The Yellow Tent.”  Southwest Review 75, I (Autumn 1990): 539-551.
• “The Skyscrapers.” River Styx 31 (Summer 1990): 14-17.
• “The Body Shop.”  Southern Review 26 (April 1990):  436-448.
  • Reprinted in  Best American Short Stories, 1991  (Houghton Mifflin: 1991): 194-208. Selected by Alice Adams.
• “Square Dance.”  Story (Autumn 1989): 25-35.
  • Reprinted in  Street Songs I: New Voices in Fiction, Jane Hill, ed. (Longstreet Press: 1990): 78-96.

Essays

• “Searching for my Father, Finding a Tantalizing Grandfather,” Boston Globe, 9/25/24
• “Remembering  My Friend and Agent, Richard Parks,” Literary Hub, May 8, 2024
• “Ponyhenge: The absurd, haunting, anonymous communal art project in my field.”The Boston Globe, May 2, 2023 
• “The Story of My Grandmother that Took Me 40 Years to Write,” Zibby Mag, April 18, 2023
• “Jews of the Spanish Homeland: Finding my Sephardic Family in a 1929 Film.”  Jewish Book Council, April 10, 2023 
  “Corona (of a star, etc.)” Harvard Review Online, April 3, 2020
• “On Edward P. Jones’ ‘All Aunt Hagar’s Children.” B-Sides Column,  Public Books, May 2019
• “Assigned Reading: On My ‘Literatures of Migration Course.’” Boston College Magazine, August 2018
• “A Christmas Mitzvah” read on NPR by Susan Stamberg, as part of “Hanukkah Lights.” December 19, 2017 (audio)
• “Impossible Math.” The Harvard Review 50th Anniversary Issue (print edition, May 2017)
• “Welcome Home.”  Tablet,  October 26, 2016
• “A Gutsy Move.” O. Magazine, May, 2014
• “Dynamic Cities: Urban Renewal in Art and Life.”  Orion Magazine, May/June 2013
• “The Lost Boys of Penikese Island.” Boston Magazine, June 2013
• “Walker Evans, Kitchen Wall.”  Gastronomica Magazine, June 6, 2012
• “Distance Education.”  Boston College Magazine, Fall 2010
• “On World and Town, by Gish Jen,” Judicial Review
• “He Goes” The Official Catalog of Potential Literature, Ed. Ben Segal (Cow Heavy Press, 2011). 21. Reprint: Continent, 6/2011
• “Migrate,” The Seneca Review, The Lyrical Body: Poets and  Essayists on Human Difference.  (Spring, 2010, Vol. 39/2 – 40/1)
• “Dora, Barbie and the Recalls.”  Op-Ed,  The Boston Globe, 9/7/07; International Herald Tribune, 9/7/07
• “Mitzvahmakers.”  Wondertime Magazine, 11/07
• Gathered. “Why I’m Still Married: Women Write Their Hears Out About Sex, Love, Betrayal, Loss and Who Does the Dishes”,  Karen Propp, JeanTroustine, eds., (Hudson Street Press/Plume, 2006). 143-156.
• “Something to Tell You.”  Searching for Mary Poppins: Women Writers Write About the Intense Relationship Between Mothers and Nannies, Gina Hyams, Susan Davis, eds.  (Hudson Street Press/Plume, 2006): 99-112.
• “Once Upon a Time: Playing with Time in Fiction.”  Now Write!  Fiction Writing Exercise From Today’s Best Writers and Teachers. Sherry Ellis, ed., (Tarcher Books/Penguin, 2006). 51-53.
• “The Long Good-Bye.”  Parenting Magazine, 8/05
• “Play.”  Self, September 2004
• “Where Imagination Meets Memory” Wesleyan Magazine, Summer 2004.
• “And Then She Drowned.” The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Contemporary Women Writers  on Foremothers in Fiction, Ed. J. Kolosov (Lewis-Clark Press, 2003): 136-142.
• “Recommendations: Bonnie Burnard and Jose Saramango.”  Post Road, Vol.  5 (Autumn, 2002)  
• “On Being Still.”  Self, July 2001. 165-166.
• “A Double Kind of Knowing.” Passing the Word: Writers on their Mentors, Jeffrey Skinner, Lee Martin, eds.  (Sarabande Books, 2001). 125-130.
• “Detail Work.” Boston College Magazine, spring 1999: 33-35.
• “Two Baths.” Shendandoah 47/1 (Spring 1997): 62-72. Reprinted in Best American Essays, 1998, Robert Atwan, ed.;  Cynthia Ozick, guest ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999): 146-156.
• “Three Mothers.”  Boston Review XIX, 2 (April/May 1994): 32-33.
• “Un Bruit Assourdissant: Entre Mot et Silence dans La Jalousie de Robbe-Grillet.” (“A Deafening Racket: Between Word and Silence in Robbe-Grillet’s Jealousy”).  Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Foreign Literatures XLIV (Spring 1990): 28-36.

Book Reviews, etc.

• “One summer in London with my ‘little Yiddishe mama’ in my head: A Conversation with Elizabeth McCracken,” Jewish Renaissance, Summer 2024 
• “Conjuring a 17th-Century Witch Hunt, With Echoes of Our Own Day.” New York Times Book Review, 9/3/2023
• “The Roving, Kaleidoscopic Vision of Peter Orner.” New York Times Book Review, 7/5/2019
• “Once Upon a Time in Ireland.” New York Times Book Review, 12/19/2019
• “In Maggie O’Farrell’s New Novel, a Film Star Flees the Fame Game.” New York Times Book Review,  8/5/2016
• “Esther Freud’s Mr. Mac and Me.” New York Times Book Review, 1/25/2015
• “Home Fires: Dennis Mahoney’s Fellow Mortals.” New York Times Book Review, 10/7/2013
• “Nanny Dearest: Suzanne Berne’s A Perfect Arrangement.” New York Times Book Review, 5/27/2001
• “Francine Prose’s Satiric Take on Love, Writing and Academia.” Chicago Tribune, 4/23/2000
• “Walkabout: Nikki Gemmell’s Alice Springs,” New York Times Book Review, 8/15/1999
• “Survivor’s Guilt: Susan Dodd’s The Mourner’s Bench.” New York Times Book Review,  8/16/1998
• “True Grit: Jane Smiley’s The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton.” Chicago Tribune, 4/12/1998
• “A Skewed, Quirky World Holds a Deeper Meaning for Our Own: Nancy Lemann’s The Fiery Pantheon.” Chicago Tribune, 5/8/1998 
• “A Woman Finds her Future in the Past: Jonis Agee’s South of Resurrection.” Chicago Tribune, 12/21/1997 
• “The Beguiling Voice of a Girl in Love: Elizabeth Berg’s Joy School.” Boston Globe, 5/23/1997