May 12, 2022
Working on a Vineyard Taught Me to Slow Down and Pay Attention
We had no sense of “ecological time,” the cadence of the natural environment. Mostly, I experienced the natural world as lack.
How Untranslatable Words Have Connected Me to My Mother
“In Cantonese,” my mother says, “love isn’t so frivolous.”
May 04, 2022
I Love You by Remembering What You Hate: A Recipe for Herby Salad
I find joy in being let into the idiosyncrasies of someone’s taste.
Apr 14, 2022
What ‘Fast & Furious’ Can Teach Us About Women Who Reclaim Their Power
Letty Ortiz reflects back the best of our hero’s characteristics with fewer of the hang-ups.
Apr 07, 2022
Who Gets to Tell Stories About India and Its People?
India for white filmmakers is a place in their imagination.
Apr 04, 2022
The Naive “Post-Racial” Future of ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’
‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ is naïve in its progressivism, and to sing its uncritical praises is to underestimate the ability of video games to tell better stories.
Mar 23, 2022
Unlearning the Shame Culture of the Former Soviet Union
The avoidance of shame is a community obsession, one I haven’t been able to escape even in my thirties.
Mar 22, 2022
Losing My Religion and Finding Faith on Spanish Vineyards
My family’s understanding of religion was too individualistic for my liking. But I still wanted to hold faith in something bigger than myself.
Mar 21, 2022
What to Do With Your Twenties When Your Life Plans Fall Apart
It’s a strange sort of self-reliance, thinking you can out-plan the grief, and heartbreak, and confusion of growing up.
Mar 17, 2022
How to Date While You’re Grieving
The point of dating is to get to know another person. It’s a process made more confusing when, in my grief, I’m getting reacquainted with myself.
Mar 15, 2022
This is How a Friendship Ends: A Recipe for Miso Ginger Carrot Bisque
This is an essay about soup, but it is also about friendship. Or rather, this is an essay about soup and how a friendship ends.
Mar 10, 2022
Kurt Cobain Pushed the Boundaries of Gender and Made Room for Us All
Nirvana took every step to sand the edges of rock’s obsessive relationship with toxic masculinity.
Mar 01, 2022
Dear Shinhwa, I Found My Joy in K-Pop Fandom
Joy is not something I’ve carried naturally.
Feb 24, 2022
‘And Just Like That’ Isn’t Perfect, But It Gets Grief Right
In the ‘Sex and the City’ reboot, Carrie Bradshaw’s arc is one of the most truthful depictions of mourning I’ve ever seen on TV.
Feb 07, 2022
Before My ADHD Diagnosis, I Looked to Astrology for Answers
An accurate astrological picture gave me a sense of control over the different way my mind worked.
Feb 02, 2022
After the Green Ribbon
The story of the girl with the green ribbon was once a generic tale of horror. Now, it is about about gender.
Feb 01, 2022
Bridging My Family’s Language Barrier, One Filthy Russian Idiom at a Time
My family may not get much of my writing, but our mutual appreciation for ill-advised sexual mayhem transcends language.
Jan 31, 2022
‘The Namesake’ and The Stories We Tell About Our Parents
There is something resplendent in the stories of our parents.
Jan 27, 2022
“The Queerest of the Queer”: Listening to Garbage in the Nineties
I listened to the lead singer, Shirley Manson, play what I understood as masculine and feminine in the same hand.
Jan 24, 2022
