Putting words on the page seems too low stakes to get worked up about, and yet the terror of saying something taboo—or just being boring—feels like a terrible fate to most writers. I see this every day as a writing coach, a job I’ve done since 2019, first teaching online classes and now mostly working with students one-on-one over Zoom. My task is to read their unpublished, often unfinished writing—less as a teacher or as an editor than as a cheerfully unlicensed therapist. I ask the writer to read their work aloud. They begin by delivering the words like an embarrassed waiter. About five minutes in, the writer’s voice steadies. They might cry, moved by their own words. They hear the false notes but also the truth of what they’re saying. It’s not “good,” not yet, but it’s a start. I ask questions, look for the story behind the story, and review sentence-level decisions. I watch for moments when the author is having fun.

I wrote about the Love Letters of David Wojnarowicz for the New Yorker’s Page-Turner.

My interview with Jeff Sharlet about photography, empathy, and solidarity.

My 4Columns review of Emma Cline’s novel.

My 4Columns review of Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel.

My 4Columns review of Lydia Davis’s expansive nonfiction collection.

The devil wears onesies: a look back at the birth of Rosemary’s Baby. My review from 4Columns.

For Affidavit, an inquiry into the work of photographer Michael Jang.

The disquiet starts early in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s new thriller, The Morning Star. My review from 4Columns.

In 2020, I interviewed Eddie Glaude about his book on James Baldwin for Bookforum.

Friendship, tragedy, and coming-of-age in Hua Hsu’s debut memoir. My review from 4Columns.

For Artforum, a look at Peter Saul’s crime-soaked, home-brewed proto-Pop.

My reporting for Artforum on a night with George Saunders at the New York Public Library.

The 2016 election in the photography of Mark Peterson. From the APR/MAY 2017 issue of Bookforum.

Maggie Nelson and Serial: How writers approach the unknowable. From the SUMMER 2016 issue of Bookforum.