I write science and environmental journalism and nature essays. Some of my most recent pieces found online are linked to on my blog.
My pieces have appeared in Terrain.org, the Dr. TJ Eckleburg Review, The Common Online, The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, Science News, and other publications.
A sampling of creative nonfiction:
- The Reaper of the Sea – seals and our connection to them in the threatened Atlantic
- Reading Keats in Pandemic Winter – poetry, motherhood, and mortality
- In Search of Vincent van Gogh – traveling the south of France
- Collecting Time – birdwatching with a nature journal
- Even Here – natural, human, and personal landscapes of the Amazon
- Snow Falling – to help a stranger
For several years, I contributed a monthly environment column, Down to Earth, to the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Valley Advocate. Columns are posted on my blog, but a few sample articles include one on Coke’s local water use (I also spoke about this on WHMP), on ideas from indigenous communities about nature, and on what cute animal videos can teach us.
An interview for the radio program Writer’s Voice, and a reading of the essay Alaska, Massachusetts, about winter in the state’s rural west, are here (starting 32 minutes in).
Other sample articles available online include:
- Umass patch would spot stressed-out soldiers (Boston Globe)
- Scientists get ship backed by Google executive (Boston Globe)
- MIT nanotech research targets bone-repair surgery (Boston Globe)
- Big-data crunching hits the fast lane in Holyoke (Boston Globe)
- Without a map (Boston Globe) (pdf)
- The wind and the fury (Science News) (pdf)
- Go Robot – New humanoids march forth (Science News)
- Soft drinks as top calorie culprit (Science News Online)
- In pixels and in health (Science News)
I teach science writing at Smith College’s Jacobson Writing Center and as a lecturer in the departments of English and Environmental Science and Policy. I have worked with students and faculty as an editor on their journalistic work; here are a few published student examples:
- Climate consequences of hemlock’s decline (Daily Hampshire Gazette) by Zoe Merrell
- Why apples and skiing should make you care about the Trump climate assessment (Spokesman Review) by Alexandra Golikov
- Climate change hits home (Mountain Democrat) by Kate Carruth
- Climate Change and the Bleak Future of My Hometown in Bangladesh ([CEEDS]) by Bushra Tasneem
In addition, during the summer, I have taught teaching nature writing and science journalism in the Smith Summer Science and Engineering Program for high school girls.
