Writing & Media

I am currently working on an anthology about eating disorders in midlife women called “This Is Not Your Mother’s Eating Disorder.” Learn more here.

Stay tuned for the upcoming anthology “Redacted,” set to be published in 2026, about midlife women and divorce, in which I have an essay.

Personal Essays and Poetry

I Am (Not) Too Old For An Eating Disorder

This was originally published at Midstory Magazine

At 54 years old, I found myself battling an eating disorder.

I realize writing it that way (“I found myself”) sounds like I stumbled upon myself one day, in the bathroom, purging. Honestly, in some ways that feels true. It’s hard to step outside yourself when you’re engaged in self-destructive behavior you work damn hard to keep under wraps. I have struggled with eating disorders and disordered eating since I was a teenager.

Driving While Grieving

This was originally published at HerStories Project

When I am 22 years old it’s an adventure: the two of us live in an old school bus with no bathroom, on a river crowded with crawdads, in rural North Carolina. We break up shortly afterward, but not before hopping a plane to Greece, sleeping on the deck of a boat making its way across the ocean to Israel, settling into kibbutz life for a time, and getting stuck in Egypt traveling through the desert on horses, in search of pyramids. Read more.

Write Your Eating Disorder (Even When It’s Messy)

I imagined I was ET – the little alien from the movie of the same name. I’d write my way into a glowing heartlight, I thought, sharing the beauty of my story about healing from anorexia and bulimia and allowing others to find their path toward recovery. I wanted everything I wrote to be cathartic, educational, and wrapped up in a bow. Read more at “This Is Not Your Mother’s Eating Disorder.”

I Was Born From A Woman Whose Body Was Stolen

This was originally published in the magazine Entropy, which has since shut down.

I was born in a snowstorm from a woman whose body was stolen. She was knocked out and drugged up hours after arriving at the hospital where she planned to birth her first child. Her doctor told her to stop screaming as she writhed in pain on a white-sheeted gurney, in a crowded hallway of a New York City hospital. She didn’t oblige his request and was eventually sedated, sighing deep with wet-cheeks. She did not know what she was given. Read more.

When I die and you live

I want it all: the fire, lightning, a pulsing prism, a cellular storm. Read more.

What Reminds Us Of Our Mothers?

Originally published at Manifest Station.

What reminds us of our mothers? What do we see, smell, think, hear that tilts us towards knowing? As adults we barely recall – or want to recall. For me, it’s Patti Smith. Her beautiful plain-ness strikes me like the dark murky mix of my mother’s turmoiled young adulthood. Young parenthood between two worlds. Poetic in its sadness. In its realness. Poetic in its young destructiveness.

The story of stars that once were

The stories appeared like morning fog. Like faint star matter trailing her skin. Her curly hair. Her explosive anger. Her diminution. Why was she so difficult? What made her so frustrated and frustrating? Read more.

Wolves at the door

The wolves are at the door pacing slowly.

Impatient with my pain. They wait.

They want to devour me slowly.

I am not your feast, I want to scream. Read more.

Journalism & Political Essays

Slip, Not Failure: A Conversation With Mallary Tenore Tarpley on Rethinking Eating Disorder Recovery

I was honored to interview Mallary Tenore Tarpley, author and journalism and writing professor at the University of Texas at Austin, about her new book, “Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery.” Tarpley writes poignantly about how she’s grappled with the idea of recovery from eating disorders in her own life, but zooms out to identify, through original reporting and research, how to understand eating disorders, treatment, and what recovery may look like. She ultimately arrives at a groundbreaking concept for many of us who have suffered from eating disorders throughout our lives: full recovery from an eating disorder is complicated, and there can be a “middle place” between sickness and recovery where slips happen that do not need to be defined as failure. Read more.

This is Not About Abortion: White Women, White Supremacy & The Patriarchy

I got a text last week — from a former colleague — that alerted me to the news that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that enshrined the right to legal abortion in the US constitution, will likely be overturned. I was completely stunned for some reason. Read more.

At the Border, We’re Seeing Exactly What America Is

Originally published at Lilith Magazine

It’s impossible not to see the pleas plastered on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: “We are better than this.” “This is not who America is.” “This is not the America I know!” Read more.

Will This Black Mother’s Death Spark the Change We Need?

Originally published at Our Bodies, Our Blog

Earlier this year, Shalon Irving, a 36-year-old high ranking African American public health official at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), died, just weeks after giving birth. In a dark twist of fate, Irving’s professional mission focused on addressing racial health disparities. Yet even she could not be protected.

Seattle is Pro-Choice. How About Its Hospitals?

Is Seattle really a sanctuary city for abortions? Check out a Pen and Eye comic I contributed to.

Life support for feminist health care

Originally published at Rewire News

I’m sitting at my desk in my office at Seattle’s Aradia Women’s Health Center (AWHC), one of only 16 feminist women’s health centers left in the nation. I’ll be the Communications Manager here at AWHC for four more weeks, when we’ll permanently close our doors, ending a 34-year-long relationship with the women of the Pacific Northwest. Read more.

Sorry, You Can’t Be Anti-Choice & Claim To Support Women

Originally published at Kveller.

But here’s a fact: Without access to safe abortion, women die. It’s not a talking point. It’s not politics. It’s not a feminist “belief.” It’s a fact.

3 Reasons Why Criminalizing Pregnant Women for Drug Use Is A Bad Idea