When I was about to launch my book tour a few years a­­go, I was nervous about reading in public—I tend to mumble, and have never been a good storyteller [...]

Christmas Day, 1999. Twenty years ago. Was I at home in New York, a gentle snow falling outside, while inside blazed a warm fire in the fireplace, with presents under the Christmas tree […]

If you ever hear that I’ve moved back east, and I say something like “I want to be closer to my family” or “I miss the racial diversity of New York” or “Denver just can’t compete when […]

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has for a long time been my favorite “ghost story,” not solely because of how well it is told, but also because it is, for me, a “local” tale, in that I grew up in […]

We shared our first kiss under the cherry blossom tree. It was perfect, like a scene from the movies. I stared into her eyes and brushed her soft hair from her delicate face. I saw the blood rush to her […]

My father is long gone, having died in January 2007, and at first he seemed to hang around—at the foot of my bed, threatening to twist my toe to wake me up; across from me at my desk, telling me I might be working too hard [...]