Published Essays
Dietary Restrictions Taught My Mother the Importance of Inclusivity
Shondaland: December 2023
In this essay, I reflect on how my mother demonstrated love and acceptance by embracing different tastes in her kitchen.
Requiem for a Lost Organ
The Linden Review: May 2023
In this essay, I offer a final requiem to a life-giving organ afer surgery.
I’m am Adult Who Still Sends Valentine’s Day Cards
Shondaland: February 2023
In this essay, I explain why I follow in my mother’s footsteps and embrace an old-school tradition in an effort to spread love.
What Happens Without Warning
High Country News: February 2023
In this essay, I ponder my relationship with the ash tree in my backyard when I receive a life-changing phone call.
A Cassette Tape Reunited Me With My Father’s Voice
Shondaland: December 2022
In this essay, thanks to old-school technology, I unexpectedly reconnect with my father who I lost decades ago on Christmas.
How a Bar of Soap Taught Me to Apologize
Shondaland: October 2022
In this essay I reminisce about a keepsake that inspired me and my husband to clean up our act.
Also featured in Flipboard’s 10 for Today, Oct 4, 2022
The Little Black Dress is the Ultimate Jewish Clothing Staple
Kveller: July 2022
In this essay I think about how the meaning of the little black dress changes as we age
Paying Off the Torah Dealer Was My Father’s Final Act of Redemption
Kveller: June 2022
In this essay I explore the details of my father's final act of redemption before his death.
Scattering My Mother’s Ashes Felt More Jewish Than I Thought It Would
Kveller: June 2022
In this essay I come to terms with my mother’s decision to be cremated.
Brevity Blog: May 2020
Writers Near and Far: Shared Prompts and Tic-Tac-Toe Boxes: May 2020
We Want the Park
The Coachella Review: June 2020 issue
My best friend Danza and I, fledgling revolutionaries, navigate our way through the People’s Park march in downtown Berkeley.
I am a Marionette
Grief Dialogues: May 6, 2020
I mourn the loss of my ancestral threads after both of my parents are gone.
The Crying of Lot 1875-2, The Battle for People's Park, Berkeley 1969
Testimonial: Take Back the Park
I reflect on marching through the streets of Berkeley during the People's Park Protest.
Testimonial: Sleep In at BHS
I describe the sleep-in we had at my high school following the People's Park march.
From Absence to Presence
The Grief Dialogues Blog
Gratitude to The Grief Dialogues--an organization committed to a new conversation about dying, death, and grief-- for inviting me to submit this piece about grief and the holidays.
If I Were You Honey, I’d Run, Not Walk
Lake Effect, International Literary Journal
I wrestle to make peace with the Freudian beliefs espoused by my father when I was growing up.
Sunday Morning Tie Men
Existere Journal of Arts and Literature
I try to make sense of my father’s dubious business dealings after process servers show up at our home on Sunday morning, while we are still in our pajamas.
Cio Che C’e (That What Is)
Silk Road Review
I reflect on my mother’s impressive ability to make something from nothing in the kitchen, and in life.
Amen
Penman Review
My beloved second mother, James Ella, brought a dash of Christian prayer and a new moral standard to our Jewish home.
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Watching with Our Eyes Closed
Crack the Spine
From the time I was a child on my father’s knee, I have been exploring his blindness and the effect it had on our family.
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Yom Kippur vs The Giants
Amarillo Bay
Suffocated by my dress clothes, I sit through a Yom Kippur service with my mother and sisters, while my father and brothers listen to the World Series on the radio.
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Driven
Tower Journal
My father had a curious menagerie of cars and drivers during my childhood. He needed drivers because he was blind. But the hit parade of cars? Well… that’s another story.
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No Feet on the Railing
Oklahoma Review
Sixteen years after his death, my family goes to court to settle my father’s complex estate, the longest probate in California history.
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Where We Find Her
Diverse Arts Project
My quest to locate my mother after her death.
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The $10,000 Offer
Serving House Journal
When a South American friend offers to pay me $10,000 to marry him for his citizenship, my father goes ballistic.
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The Battle of the Brians
KYSO Flash
My mother and I watch Brian Boitano and Brian Orser compete for the Gold medal in the 1988 Olympics.
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MEZZO CAMMIN
I was the featured essayist for the Spring/Summer issue of this exceptional women’s poetry journal.
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Falling Off the Cliff
Magical thinking overtakes me when my blind father turns the family car around on a narrow fire road overlooking a terrifying precipice.
Hold a Good Thought
Following my mother’s death, I ask crucial questions and struggle to find faith.
I am a Marionette
I mourn the loss of my ancestral threads after both of my parents are gone.
“A lot can be taken from you- even your life-but not your stories about that life. So this, then, is a word, not without love and respect, to a young writer: write.”