Freelance Articles and Essays

A movie review for The Rumpus:

The Rumpus Review of Bridget Jones's Baby Oct. 13, 2016

An essay for Code Switch (on NPR.org):

On Campus Racism and the Fairy Tale of the P.C. Police Nov. 12, 2015

An article for The Outtake (on Medium):

The Dueling Universes of Bridget Jones Oct. 29, 2015

An article for Salon:

"Serial" bombshells aren't finished: New podcast breaks even more news, and more doubt June 2, 2015

An article for Millihelen (Jezebel's fashion blog):

Real Cold Weather Tips for Real Cold Women Feb. 25, 2015

An essay for the "God's Politics" blog for Sojourners:

Converting People: I Don't Buy It Dec. 22, 2014

An essay for the Peace Corps Passport blog:

Ukraine ... it's next to Russia Aug. 26, 2014

An article for Salon:

"How I Met Your Mother" lied to us: Why the fake-out finale is such a cop-out April 2, 2014

An essay in Thought Catalog:

The Universe Has a Plan, Kids Nov. 12, 2013

An essay in Global Comment:

Parents Just Don't Understand: On Protecting Children At Risk June 7, 2013

An article for The Atlantic:

Will Bridget Jones Remain the Modern Heiress to the Jane Austen Heroine? January 3, 2013

An entry for the XX Factor on Slate:

What, Exactly, is a "Manic Pixie Dream Girl"? March 16, 2012

An essay in The ALAN Review:

Remembering Brian Jacques Fall 2011

Freelance Book Reviews and Blog Entries

Book reviews for the Washington Independent Review of Books:

I Liked My Life: A Novel (February 2017)

Loner: A Novel (September 2016)

Luckiest Girl Alive (July 2015)

Winter Street (January 2015)

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra (September 2014)

The Lost Sisterhood (April 2014)

Caught (February 2014)

The Smart One (June 2013)

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II (April 2013)

These Girls (March 2012)

Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson - New Women in Search of Love and Power (November 2011)

An entry for the baking/crafts blog, I Like To Do Crafty Things:

Its Fleece Was White As Snow: More Easter Treats! April 12, 2012

Work for AM Radio

From the Fall of 2011 to the Spring of 2013, I worked as an anchor/reporter/producer on AM radio.

Here's an example of my anchoring the news on the weekend, from August 4, 2012:


And here's my local news from the same day:

Radio Essay about the Peace Corps

In the summer of 2011, after I had left Missouri, KBIA ran the radio essay I wrote the year before for a class. It was about unexpectedly having to teach a certain class to a group of 4th graders while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine ...

Work for "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" on WAMU

In the spring of 2011, I was an intern for "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" on WAMU, the NPR-affiliate in Washington, D.C. While there, I helped produce four shows:

Economic History in the Black Community, Feb. 23, 2011
Guest: Dr. Julianne Malveaux

Equal Opportunity, On & Off the Playing Field, Feb. 28, 2011
Guest: N. Jeremi Duru

Women's Health Care and the Law, March 16, 2011
Guests: Rosemary Codding; Maryland Del. Adelaide Eckardt; Maryland Del. Pamela Beidle

Musical Artifacts of the Civil War, April 7, 2011
Guests: Prof. Patrick Warfield; Prof. Dan Milner

And I pitched and researched one last show before leaving:

Charter Schools in Virginia, April 27, 2011
Guests: Stuart Gibson; Dan Soifer; Lacy Ward, Jr.; Virginia State Sen. Mamie Locke

Work for Vox Magazine / Missouri Press Foundation Better Newspaper Award

When I lived in Missouri, I did several pieces for Vox Magazine. My first is here:

Horsing around: Stephens College equestrian students and their horses have a symbiotic relationship, March 18, 2010

My next pieces were part of a package that won the 2011 Missouri Press Foundation Better Newspaper Award for "Best News or Feature Series." The package focused on issues of fertility: I wrote about religion and fertility treatments, and interviewed an egg donor about her experience.

Religion and fertility: how major religions view receiving help with reproductive issues, Dec. 9, 2010

Becoming an egg donor: an anonymous egg donor shares her story, Dec. 9, 2010

Series on Missouri Roads for KBIA

While at KBIA, in the fall of 2010, I produced a five-part series on the history and economics of rural roads and bridges in Missouri. I wrote and voiced two of the stories: