Tennis Lessons from David Foster Wallace
I was, and still am, the most reviled type of tennis player.
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Shelve This in Memoir: Confessions of a Teenage Bookseller
I’d begged my way into this job in the hopes that it might lead me closer to a literary life. And it would. Eventually.
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All I Really Need to Know I Learned from ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
Though the plot falls short, the philosophy doesn’t. Re-watching A Charlie Brown Christmas today feels like a masterclass in self-help. If Charles Schulz and Brené Brown had a love child, they’d name their sage Charlie Brown.
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The Anti-Adventures of Gary Paulsen
While Hatchet provided readers with some much-needed escapism, The Island centered its focus on what we can never escape—mortality, which, in the immediate aftermath of Paulsen’s passing, takes on new significance.
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How Ramona Quimby Made Me Brave
Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books became my sacred texts. I turned to them in times of trouble, leaving the crumbly roads of the real world in favor of the smooth sidewalks of Klickitat Street.
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The Time My Grandma Was in ‘Playboy’
Playboy showcased many celebrated writers: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Joyce Carol Oates, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Updike, and Vladimir Nabokov. Had it showcased Corrine Hutner Wittenberg, too?
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The Time I Opened for Bon Iver: On Allowing Failure to Flourish
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a fleeting hint of pride. Not for what I’d done, but for what we’d done together. We took a risk and the risk paid off.
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Tracing Footsteps Not My Own: Going Through the Motions, Learning to Write
This is a story about writing and failing and trying to feel less alone. I suppose it’s also about “finding myself” with Sandburg's same reckless ecstasy.
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Ray Bradbury’s Keys to the Universe
I used my earnings from the bookstore to purchase a plane ticket. A few months later I boarded a plane, hailed a taxi, scheduled a shuttle, and at last reached Ray Bradbury’s front door.
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