VERY PERSONAL ESSAYS
Read these opening lines and click for the rest. Jon Roemer took this photo of me. See my diaries on the middle shelf and book on the bottom? Confession: my office is usually messier…
How I Finally Finally Finally Became a Novelist
Yale Alumni Magazine Sept 2020
Why My App is So Very Proud of Me
CNN May 24, 2020
“I never gave much thought to the health app on my iPhone -- that white square with the red heart. Who cares how many steps I take? Turns out I care…”
Book Club With My Husband
Publishers Weekly June 2020
“There is so much to hate about sheltering in place, but I found something to love: listening to books with my husband. This morning, after coffee and the paper…”
Sue Grafton, Woman of Letters
Publishers Weekly January 2018
"Sue Grafton was the big sister I never had: encouraging when I needed courage, honest when I needed truth, and funny..."
S is for Sue
Read it Forward August 2018
Worry and Love in the ICU
Chicago Tribune July 2017
"It took a long time for our family to recover..."
Five Things I've Learned From Being an Advice Columnist
School Library Journal April 2017
"I've been Dear Carol since the magazine's first issue in 1994..."
Time with Mom
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Nov 2015
"My mother was not a hoarder, but she sure was a saver…"
Dividing Mom's Ashes: A Labor of Love
"I was eleven the first time my mother talked to me about death. Mom was speaking in the abstract about 'pulling the plug,' and I burst into tears and ran out of the kitchen…."
A Daughter Remembers
Cigar Aficionado
"My father was a big man who smoked a big cigar. As a young girl, I wore the golden rings from his cigars with pride. As a grown woman, I still like the rich smell of a fine cigar…."
To Grandmother’s House We Go
Chicago Tribune
"I adored my dad, but did not love my grandmother. I wanted to love Grandma Sophie. I wrote her letters when I was first learning to write, back when I was figuring out 'dear' versus 'deer' and where to put the stamp…."
Thank You, Dear Abby
Huffington Post
"When Dear Abby died on January 16, I was suddenly 11 again, sitting in my best friend Judy's kitchen, snacking on Pop-Tarts and reading Dear Abby's column aloud. One day, Judy's father listened in and said, "I bet she makes up the questions." "I bet she doesn't," I countered, surprising myself. Since when did I contradict grownups? Since when did I defend them?"
A Chance to Say a Final Goodbye Through Email
Chicago Tribune
"In 2000, when I was new to email, our friend Miguel called from London and told our answering machine that his father had died and he was flying to Boston. It seemed impersonal to email condolences, rather than write a proper letter in black ink on manila card stock, but that's what I did…."
A Letter to my Teenage Self
Dear Teen Me
"Here you are in white cap and gown graduating from Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York with no idea that you’re going to grow up and be an advice columnist…."
Road Taken: On Teaching
Middlebury Magazine
"My husband and I never dreamt we’d teach at Middlebury. It doesn’t seem so long ago that we met as students. Rob Ackerman ’80 was in Spain on a junior-year abroad, and I was getting my master’s in Spanish. We met in a graduate theater class in Madrid…."
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