
Mr. Arthur Sterling did not look awake. From the doorway of his private library, framed by the rain-streaked windows and…

By the time my taxi rolled off the I-80 and into my old California neighborhood, the sky over the San…

The first time my sister saw my house, the sun lit it up like a glass crown rising out of…

The jellyfish glowed like tiny neon UFOs in the dark blue tank, and while my kids pressed their hands to…

The marinara sauce had been simmering so long the whole apartment smelled like an Italian restaurant tucked under an elevated…

By the time the fire trucks reached my building, the sky over Minneapolis looked like it was bleeding. Red and…

By the time my parents realized I’d moved from Ohio to California, my California driver’s license was already expiring, my…

On the south side of Kansas City, in a dim little apartment lit only by a Netflix action movie and…

The night my daughter told me I had achieved “nothing,” the sky over Illinois looked like torn velvet—dark, stretched thin,…

The handcuffs were the first thing I saw—silver circles catching the light from a crystal chandelier in a downtown Chicago…

The pill bottle was the size of my thumb, and the first time I saw it, it was sitting in…

The first time the United States government officially referred to me as a “protected asset,” I was standing ten feet…

The doorman’s gloves were too white for winter, a small theater at the threshold. Warm light spilled through the glass,…

The photograph would later become infamous across American tabloids—a single frame captured from a security camera in a Los Angeles…

On the night everything finally blew up, the rotisserie chicken was still steaming on the dining room table and my…

The warning label on the white CVS bag looked like a stop sign left to die on a marble countertop….

The day my mother chose my sister’s wedding over mine, she did it with a coupon in her hand. She…

The night my brother’s wedding photos found me, the Kansas City sky was the color of old bruises over the…

The day my family disappeared, there were still half-eaten bowls of cereal on the kitchen table and a re-run of…

The first thing anyone would have noticed was the flag. It hung on the far wall of the emergency room,…