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Selected Stories

“Breakdown Palace,” TopicIn late 1960s London, famed psychoanalyst R.D. Laing created a radical asylum—one with no doctors, no locks, and no limits.

“Love in the Time of Robots,” Wired (cover) – A surreal, intimate tale of real-life androids and the insatiable human need for connection. Finalist for the National Magazine Award (ASME) for Feature Writing; included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2018 anthology.

“Out Came the Girls,” Virginia Quarterly Review – On adolescent girlhood, the occult, and the Slender Man phenomenon. Included in the Ecco anthology Unspeakable Acts (an NPR “Best Book of the Year”).

“Sky Burial,” The Oxford American – The story of how a Texas woman’s body was consumed by vultures, with the permission of her family.

“Was Diane Arbus the Most Radical Photographer of the 20th Century?,” New York Magazine – On the life and work of the uncompromising, pained, and very messy Diane Arbus.

“Blood Ties,” The Oxford AmericanOn being related to the conquistador Juan Ponce de León (discoverer of Florida, chaser of the “Fountain of Youth”), and the lies inherent in our ancestry.

“What Happened to ‘The Most Liberated Woman in America’?,” Longreads / Atlas Obscura – On the co-founder of the 70s’ most famous sex experiment; also featuring life advice from Gay Talese, and a face-off with a Siberian lynx.

“Satan in Poughkeepsie,” The Believer – On the Church of Satan, the American Bogeyman, the Satanic Panic, and my own childhood crush on the Devil.

“The Secret Life of Nuns,” The Oxford American – Why would a young American woman choose to marry God? An intimate look inside the Dominican order in Texas.

“Rebel Virgins and Desert Mothers,” Longreads / Atlas Obscura – From mystics to cross-dressing street preachers and desert hermits: the radical women of early Christianity.

“Man of the Future,” The Believer – Frozen heads, brain scans, artificial limbs, and a very bright Future! The sort-of-immortal life of FM-2030, Transhumanist hero.