Just out in Oregon Quarterly magazine–Editor Guy Maynard’s last issue (Happy Retirement, Guy!)–is my essay, “Narcissa Red,” about the town of Walla Walla, Washington, and the first Caucasian couple to settle in that area, the missionaries Narcissa and Marcus Whitman. Read it online.

Another essay on Narcissa Whitman recently appeared in The American Scholar, http://theamericanscholar.org,

entitled “Plucked From the Grave” (Summer 2011), about a curious note that I found in a very old book during a fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society.

And yet another essay on Narcissa Whitman, called “Drown,” in the “Fail” issue of Oregon Humanities magazine.

A Few Examples of Earlier Work:

“The Long Way Home,” in the New York Times “Modern Love” column.

Our segment (produced and edited by Sandy Tolan, featuring my two oldest daughters and me) on This American Life.

“Salmon” in The University of Idaho’s anniversary issue of Fugue.

“Spirit Lake,” a second-place winner in the Family Circle fiction contest.

“Alterations” in Brides magazine.

My latest book review in The Oregonian, on Jonathan Raban’s Driving Home.

I’ve also published essays and fiction in such journals and magazines as Salon, The Crab Orchard Review, The Kenyon Review, The Tampa Review, Washington Square Review, Prairie Schooner, and others.