Publications
Legendary Locals of Pottstown
Legendary Locals of Pottstown (2013) tells the history of my hometown through the lives and work of its people. This was an incredibly cool project! The photographer, Ed Berger, and I met so many amazing Pottstown people, whom I can’t thank enough for sharing their stories.
Arcadia Publishing, the largest publisher of local history books in the country was great to work with. They came across my Positively Pottstown blog back in 2012 and asked if I’d be interested in profiling “legendary locals,” broadly defined, and things just took off from there.
Legendary Locals of Pottstown is available at many fine local businesses, including Grumpy’s Sandwiches, Cole’s Tobacco, Professional Pharmacy, and Pottstown Roller Mills. It is also available online at Arcadia Books.
Legendary Locals of Pottstown makes a great gift for family and friends who have moved away, but want to keep in touch with their hometown and the fascinating characters from long ago and from today, too! If you would like signed copies for gifts, please use the form on the Contact page here, and we’ll figure it out!
Non Fiction
Essay, “My family went through an unintentional shooting — I know what Alec Baldwin is going through,” The Independent, January 24, 2023.
Essay, “Pandemic Thoughts, Racing,” The Keeping Room, September 22, 2020.
Maine Voices, “Take reasonable steps to keep guns away from children,” PressHerald.com, Portland Press Herald, December 5, 2019.
Letter to the Editor, “Firearm tragedies can be avoided,” CentralMaine.com, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, August 26, 2018.
Flash Essay & Photo, “Maybe in the Fall,” JMWW Journal, September 11, 2018.
Essay, “Standoff,” Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, May 28, 2018.
Panel Summary, “AWP2018: Sum of the Parts: Creating Cohesion from Fragmented Narratives,” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies/In the Classroom Blog Series, March 15, 2018.
Essay, “What A Bullet Can Do,” Hazlitt, March 7, 2018, named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2019, edited by Rebecca Solnit, and winner of 2019 Maine Literary Award for Short Nonfiction.
Profile,“Nature and Nurture: Planner and architect Mina Amundsen sees connections as she oversees Colby’s growth,” Colby Magazine, Summer 2017.
Essay, “To Suckle on Fear,” The MacGuffin, Spring 2017.
Flash Essay, “Last Chance,” Tributaries at The Fourth River, a journal of nature and place-based writing, 3/15/2017.
Essay, “The Gun Show,” The Southeast Review, Vol. 34, No. 2, Fall 2016, named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2017, edited by Leslie Jamison.
Essay, “Gun-Sitting,” Hippocampus Magazine, 6/1/2016.
Essay, “The Bodhisattva of Route 128,” The Common online, 7/24/2015.
Flash Essay, “Detours,” Literal-Latte.com, Spring 2015, named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2016, edited by Jonathan Franzen.
Book Review, https://www.thecommononline.org/review-motherland/ The Common online, 10/13/2014.
Exhibit, “When We Were Soldiers.” Worked with 15 Pottstown-area Vietnam veterans to shape their recollections of their wartime experiences for exhibit at ArtFusion 19464, Sept. 20-Nov. 9, 2013.
Founder & content provider, Positively!Pottstown, a hometown blog, April 2010-2014.
Essay in anthology TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood, “Observations from the Planet SAHM,” Coffeetown Press, 2011, pp. 195-201.
Flash Memoir, “How to wave like a queen,” Swink, 10/2010.
Flash Memoir in anthology “It All Changed in an Instant,” More Six-Word Memoirs, Harper Perennial, 2010, p. 120.
Personal essay, “When the shoe fits,” Princeton Alumni Weekly Reunions Guide (p. 22), May 2009.
Drama review, “Citizen Response: Me, Myself & I,” McCarter Theatre Blog, 2/13/08.
Personal essay, “I Feel I Owe Lewis Warsh an Explanation,” N.U.T.S., Journal of the Naropa Summer Writing Program, July 2007.
Travel essay, “Red Cloud, Nebraska: Willa Cather’s Lifelong Muse,” LiteraryTraveler.com, 7/9/07.
Personal essay, “Repairing My World, One ‘No’ at a Time,” DivineCaroline.com, 2/1/07.
Book Review, “Romance and Suspense for a Rainy Afternoon: Up at the Villa”, DivineCaroline.com, 1/17/07.
Personal essay, “How my non-Jewish father embraced my interfaith family’s Bar Mitzvah, InterfaithFamily.com, Issue 183, 5/9/06.
Personal essay, “One of Us,” InterfaithFamily.com, Issue 158, May 2005.
Founder & content provider, www.npdcPUBLIC.org, a public interest website about contamination at a former state hospital in Skillman, NJ, 2004-2006 (now defunct).
Co-founder & content provider, www.job-loss.com, a self-help website & book proposal for families experiencing job loss, October 2003 – 2006 (now defunct.)
Article, “What’s Up with the Orange Bags?” Montgomery News, May 2004 (publicizing a food drive).
Various articles in Somerset Magazine and Princeton Magazine, Downtown Magazine Group, 2004-2005.
Article, “Smart Neighborhoods,” Princeton Packet, Business Journal, 1/27/04.
Article, “Job Seekers Find Support as Holidays Approach,” Princeton Packet, Business Journal, 12/16/03.
Article, “Destination: Mercer County,” Princeton Packet, Business Journal, 12/02/03.
Article, “High School Interact Club Creating Leaders of Tomorrow,” Montgomery News, November 2003.
Article, “Red Cross Gets Automated Blood Donor Center,” Town Topics, 10/22/03.
Article, “A Walking Tour of Princeton in the Dog Days of Summer,” Town Topics, 9/3/03.
Article, “PHS’ Dorman and High Hoops Clinic Spark High Hopes for Trenton Girls,” Town Topics, 8/27/03.
Article, “Friends of Homeless Animals Finds a Home for Itself in Montgomery,” Town Topics, 8/27/03.
Article, “400-Acre Cherry Grove Farms Resist Encroachment of Suburban Sprawl,” Town Topics, 8/13/03.
Article, “Tiger Football Clinic Brings Women Together In Their Ongoing Battle Against Breast Cancer,” Town Topics, 6/11/03.
Editor & writer, The Occasional Schmooze, String of Pearls Congregational Newsletter, 9 issues, September 2003-June 2005.
Memoir, “Little League,” On the Page, January 2002 (winner, tales of failure, 150-word challenge).
Essay, “Hang Ten,” Fine Homebuilding, July 2001 (collaborator with Paul Mitchell).
Awards
“Little League,” winner, 150-word Challenge, On the Page, January 2002
Fiction
Short story, “Holding Patterns,” Broken Bridge Review, Vol. 3, Oct. 2008.
Flash Fiction, “How I Give Birth to My Mother,” Tattoo Highway, August 2008.
Flash Fiction, “Lost Women,” flashquake, Vol. 6, Issue 2, Winter 2006-07.
Short story, “Birds of a Feather,” Beloit Fiction Journal, Vol. 18, Spring 2005.
Short story, “Deliverance,” The Gettysburg Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring 2005.
Short story, “Small World,” The Rose & Thorn Literary E-zine, September 2003.
Short story, “Alterations and Repairs,” The Bryant Literary Review, Vol. 3, 2002.
Novel excerpt, “Carr Country,” Kelsey Review, September 2000.
Short story, “The Last Sorrow of Cain,” New Millennium Writings, Spring/Summer 2000 & online.
Awards
“A Thin Line,” 1st place, Deadly Ink Mystery Conference, June 2002
“Alterations and Repairs,” 3rd place, Green River Tales Contest, 2001
“The Last Sorrow of Cain,” 1st prize in New Millennium Writings Y2K contest, Spring 2000
“Rhythms of Faith,” 2nd place, The College of New Jersey writers’ conference, April 2000
Tilting at Cadillacs, Semifinalist, Heekin Group Foundation, James Fellowship, Novel-in-Progress,1997-98
Poetry
“Prelude: Howling from the Suburbs 2001-2008,” Scoundrel Time, Oct. 28, 2019.
“Girl as Fuselage,” Lunation: A Good Fat Anthology of 114 Women Poets, March 2018.
“Holy Land Everywhere,” Midway Journal, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Nov. 2008
“Non-native Speaker,” RUNES, A Review of Poetry, Arctos Press, Dec. 2007
“Suggested Revisions,” New Verse News, 2/28/07
“No Translation Required,” New Verse News, 11/2/06