I often write about nature, including how spending time in it can be the very best kick in the ass.

In 2015, my life was comfy but unfulfilling (think Thoreau’s men’s “lives of quiet desperation”). One spring day I ditched work to head into the woods, where I met a couple of kids who were walking from Georgia to Maine. They became heralds for me, calls to action. Nine months later I quit my job, put my furniture in my parents’ basement, and started my own thru-hike attempt.

I blogged about that for the Trek in 2016, exploring my perplexing decision: why would someone high-maintenance, someone who cared where her coffee beans came from, intentionally slide down Maslow’s pyramid. What did she think that would accomplish?

Now, I’m working on a novel about two women who meet on a thru-hike—an Evangelical elementary school teacher and a former Army psychiatrist—how the AT strips away what they understand about themselves, and what happens when they have to rebuild.  

Selected trail & outdoor pieces

"The Backcountry Prescription Experiment" — Longreads What happened when I spent months on trail managing a mental health condition without my usual pharmacological safety net.

"The Appalachian Trail Murder Won't Stop Me from Hiking Alone" — Outside A response to the 2019 AT murder, on why solo women hikers keep going anyway — and what it costs us to have to justify that.

Dispatches from the AT — The Trek (author page) Field notes written from the trail or shortly after — the messy, unpolished real-time record of a thru-hike in progress.

Additional writing

"Aspirational" — Cagibi (fiction) She flew to Europe to plan a wedding with her fiancé on leave from Afghanistan, then spent fifteen days finding out what she already knew.

"My People Didn't Dance" — The Manifest-Station On salsa as a place I finally belonged, and the complicated grace of watching my mother glimpse what that meant.

"To the Driver of the Bus We Hoped Would Get Us to Our Salseros" — Off Assignment A 460-mile roundtrip for four hours of salsa dancing in Manhattan—and what happens when the bus breaks down on the side of Route 9.

"This Is What No One Tells You About Being Child-Free in Your 40s" — HuffPost On navigating the grief and the freedom of a life without children, without a map for either.

"I Learned to Love Standardized Tests" — Wall Street Journal A contrarian argument that a good test question can be a genuine act of intellectual engagement.

"Wait Till Next Year" — Washington Post On rediscovering reading, and why I became a teacher in the first place.