An essay for struggling writers.  Appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine. October 2009 It wasn't that I couldn't write. I wrote every day. I actually worked really hard at writing. At my desk by 7 A.M., would work a full eight and more. Scribbled at the dinner table, in bed, on the … [Read more...]

Self-explanatory.  Appeared in The New York Times, September 18, 2011.  I remember her as small woman but what do I know?  I was small myself.  She’s in none of the official photographs I have from my elementary school days which is sad considering how important she was to our … [Read more...]

An essay on the one time my family apartment was broken into while we were away on vacation and how I solved the Mystery of the Stupid Morons. Appeared in The New Yorker, June 13, 2011 All the Dominicans I knew in those days sent money home.  My mother certainly did.  She didn’t … [Read more...]

A picayune tribute to the great man himself written shortly after his death. Appeared in The New Yorker Online, June 6, 2012. I was speaking of him only yesterday. I was with someone from the American Association of Publishers and me and my interlocutor were talking about how … [Read more...]