Writing Samples

Finding the right writer for your project is crucial. It’s three parts skill, two parts personality, and one part magic. Check out my published writing samples below to get a sense of my style.

Sparking joy?

  • Other people’s children and global parenthood

    Other people’s children and global parenthood

    The week after Jackson was born I read a story about a newborn who’d been bitten by rats over 75 times while his parents were high on drugs. The baby was almost the exact…

  • Flea market finds

    Flea market finds

    In the tiny town of Monteagle, TN, there’s a flea market that Taylor and I peruse like shell scavengers on a beach. The vendors sell toys with missing parts and corroded batteries. They sell…

  • The grace in need

    The grace in need

    The month after I had a baby, I couldn’t figure out how to go to the drug store. My parents had finally left after staying to help with Jackson for the first week, and…

  • The things we carry

    The things we carry

    Lately I’ve been complaining that I can’t write. My previously complex sentences fragment or drift off into vague wishes for an iced coffee or fantasies about a new granite countertops. The brilliant idea that…

  • The Gift of Exhaustion

    The Gift of Exhaustion

    I work from home, which happens to also be the place I live and care for my 11-month-old baby. When I first had him, people told me that newborns slept for 18 hours a…

  • To writing more in 2018! Plus a round-up of my work from 2017.

    To writing more in 2018! Plus a round-up of my work from 2017.

    I’m alive. So mumming took more of my time than I expected (yes, I can hear you experienced parents laughing now), but we’re sleeping through the night now (trying not to jinx anything here)…

  • Flyover state of mind

    Flyover state of mind

    The morning before the eclipse, all I think about is not blinding my 5-month-old baby. I drape his carrier in a blue swaddle and hustle him into my friend’s house like a body builder…

  • Vessel: thoughts on motherhood and the body

    Vessel: thoughts on motherhood and the body

    People kept telling me I didn’t look pregnant. At 5 months, my sister-in-law studied the slack of my shirt over my flat tummy. “Can I touch it?” I hesitate. “Sure.” There’s nothing there but…

  • A place for outsiders? Meryl Streep and Hollywood’s self-proclaimed inclusivity.

    A place for outsiders? Meryl Streep and Hollywood’s self-proclaimed inclusivity.

    Let me first say that I love Meryl Streep as much as the next person. After all, no one else flings a skillet full of potato in the exact style of Julia Child like…