Here are sample pages from the book I am working on, sorted by theme.

My literary idols include Renata Adler, Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, Mary Karr, Natalia Ginzburg, Alexander Chee, Anne Fadiman, Leslie Jamison, Rachel Cusk, Clarice Lispector, and others.

Themes from a Memoir

The Desert

I grew up in the desert.

The desert is biblical.

 

Grief

I am grieving the death of my brother.

“Welcome to this side of it.”

 

Home

House, kitchen, garden, roots.

I live at Hermosa Drive.

 

Horses

Horses run wild.

Horses run free.

 

Magick

Witchcraft is an art form and a way of being spiritual.

It works better sober.

 

New York

I lived there for six years in my twenties.

Every writer should have a New York contact.

 

Paris

I lived there as a student.

I was also an English teacher.

 

People

Literature concerns itself with people, generally.

I like to study people.

 

School

I’m not teaching right now because I went to school drunk.

It’s why my sober date is November 12, 2021.

 

Sobriety

I was drinking myself into oblivion.

I was trying to drink myself to death.

 

Time and Memory

What does a clock measure?

Minutes and trauma.

 

Work (Oeuvre)

Readers of books often get called lazy.

(But if I was lazy, I would not have an oeuvre.)