Writing

Essays and Articles

“The Significance of Michelle Obama’s Fertility Story” (from The Atlantic Monthly)

“Mother Science: Uterine transplants are frontier science, but they offer hope of possibility for trans women and others seeking parenthood” (from Guernica)

“The Book That Taught Me What I Want to Teach My Daughter,” on The Little Virtues, by the Italian novelist, essayist, playwright, short-story writer, translator, and political activist Natalia Ginzburg (from The New Yorker online)

“The Price of Infertility” (from New York Magazine's The Cut)

“No One Ever 'Just Adopts'” (from Slate)

“What Infertility Really Feels Like” (from Refinery29)

"Writer, Mother, Both, Neither," on childcare, AWP, and leading the "triple life" of writing, mothering, and work (from LitHub)

"'Scary and Absurd': A dangerous pregnancy, a mother of four, and the real-life impact of North Carolina’s abortion restrictions" (from Slate)

"When You Can't Have A Baby Like You Always Dreamed" (from Rodale's Organic Life)

“The Science of Citizenship,” on the politics of science education (from Orion)

“The Art of Waiting,” about infertility, writing, and observing the natural world (from Orion)

“Visible Life,” on IVF, personhood, and the two-week wait (from Slate)

“Nesting,” on bald eagles and the start of IVF treatment (from RESOLVE’s newsletter)

“The Whole House,” on well drilling and living with uncertainty (an excerpt from the Sun)

“North Carolina’s Shocking History of Sterilization” (an excerpt from the ebook For the Public Good, in Salon)

On agents and the publication process (from the Poets & Writers blog)

On my talent for ham carving (from Southern Living)

On travel, the South, and writing (from Southern Living)

Stories

“The Tooth” appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of phoebe.

“Death Panel” appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of Blackbird.

Richard and I wrote “Whip-it” together for a Salon Valentine’s Day feature on celebrity love.

“Imperial Chrysanthemum,” one of the stories from Mattaponi Queen, appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of the Paris Review.

“Jonas,” another story from the collection, was serialized in Five Chapters.

Homecoming” appeared in At Length. Running out of trouble in Bed-Stuy — and into it in Virginia.

Opportunity” appeared in storySouth. An elementary school principal pines for a wayward bassist.