WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW

American Public Media and PRX have launched my new radio fiction project, The Truth, co-produced by Jonathan Mitchell. Check us out on Facebook and PRX. We want to get The Truth funded for broadcast, so your comments will be extremely helpful. And if you like what you hear, please spread the word!

My third novel, The View from the Top, is now out!

I'm producing a podcast for the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.

Subscribe to updates here.

Follow me on Twitter.

EVENTS

I have no events scheduled for the near future.

If you'd like me to speak at your school or local library, please contact me.

PRESS

August 2010
The View from the Top gets 4 out of 5 ratings in both Quality and Popularity from VOYA.

7 . 20 . 10
The View from the Top is reviewed and I am interviewed on The Hiding Spot, a book blog.

June 2010
The View from the Top gets a Recommended review from The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

6 . 1 . 10
The View from the Top gets a starred review in Booklist.

5 . 13 . 10
Interview with me on Reading Rocks, a YA fiction review site.

5 . 13 . 10
The View from the Top comes out!

Spring 2010
The View from the Top is a selection in the Junior Library Guild's Spring 2010 catalog.

February 2010
Lucy and the Bike Girl is awarded an Editor's Prize in the Missouri Review's 2009 Audio & Video Contest.

2009
My Guilt & Pleasure essay, "The Color of Monday," is in the 5th edition of The Fourth Genre, a reader for college composition writing.

4 . 7. 09
The radio story, Sleepover!, which I co-produced with my husband, Jonathan Menjivar, is featured on Saltcast, a podcast produced by the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and PRX. Rob Rosenthal, the host of the program, interviews us about the making of the piece and what it's like to collaborate.

SPRING 2008
My essay, "The Color of Monday," is in the Death Issue of Guilt & Pleasure. It's about one of my dad's best friends, who set himself on fire and died. The next day, my dad received a package from that friend with a suicide note and 17 rolls of undeveloped film.

3 . 27 . 07 - 7 . 27 . 07
I have a short piece in the audio installation Wait for the Beep, which is part of Steppenwolf Theatre's production, Dead Man's Cell Phone. In the lobby there are cell phones. If you pick them up, you can hear stories unfold through voicemail messages. Mine is about two women who hatch a plan to punish an ex-boyfriend.

November 2007
I was interviewed for the Writers Webcast, a podcast about the craft of writing. If you're an aspiring writer, this is a great place to get tips.

FALL 2007
My essay, Me & MC, is in the Sound Issue of the Jewish literary magazine, Guilt & Pleasure. It's about what it's like to watch an old friend become a Jewish rapper. If you read the article online, I recommend downloading the PDF because it makes a whole lot more sense with the images. But more than that, I recommend picking up a copy at your local bookstore. It's beautifully designed and is one of those magazines that feels really great in your hands.

12 . 23 . 05
An excerpt from Hedonophobia and Other Shades of Fear is in the Chicago Reader's Fiction issue. Read "Arachibutyrophobia" and
find out what happens when the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth and the fear of long words collide in a kitchen that reeks of lentils.

4 . 1 . 05
My essay "Next Train Back to Providence" is in the April issue
of Weston Magazine. Another version of this story previously aired on
This American Life.

11 . 12 . 04
Read Martha Bayne's article about me in the Chicago Reader's Fall Books issue. If you're looking for info on how I got started as a writer and
radio producer, this article's got it all!

10 . 27 . 04
Listen to Steve Edwards's interview with me on Chicago Public Radio's
10.27.04 broadcast of Eight-Forty-Eight.

10 . 1 . 04
I Can't Tell You is featured in Chicago Magazine's October issue.

1 . 4 . 03
Listen to Jason DeRose's National Public Radio story featuring
Better Than Running at Night.