Category Archives: Reading and Writing

My newest published essay is about maps – physical, paper fold-out maps – my fondness for them, their pending extinction from everyday life, maps and guidebooks in my travels and sighted in literature. “Flaneur with Baedeker, or, Student of the Map” appears … Continue reading →

My late-blooming fascination with science has provided a rich lode for exploration and unearthed a few long-buried memories. It’s a continuing work in progress that has sparked a new personal essay. “Science for Dummies” is in the Spring issue of Waccamaw … Continue reading →

In one of Virginia Woolf’s last diary entries she wrote: “Observe perpetually. Observe the oncome of age. By that means it becomes serviceable.” And that’s what I find myself doing. I’m both a participant in and an observer of my … Continue reading →

How did I come to write about 19th-century Arctic exploration? It started with a song, as I explain in my essay “The Idea of North.” One thing led to another, and I was off on a tangent of research & reading, … Continue reading →