“Losing the Farm” | Belt Magazine
“The story of the twentieth century in American agriculture is a story, mainly, of exodus.”
“Margins” | Terrain.org
On the places between places and what it means to belong somewhere.
“The Iconic Windmills that Made the American West” | Atlas Obscura
The life and times of the classic American self-regulating water pump windmill.
“Oil and Water—I” | Belt Magazine
On oil pipelines, the Great Lakes, and the complicated mixing of oil and water.
“Oil and Water—II” | Belt Magazine
A “Toxic Tour” of the Whiting Refinery on the southern shores of Lake Michigan.
“What the River Knows” | ACRES Quarterly
Why I decided to walk from one end of the Maumee River to the other.
“Chicago Notebook” | Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology
On moving to Chicago, moving away from Chicago, and the impossibility of ever truly leaving a place.
“Seeing the Maumee River” | Old Northwest Review
The essay that became my first book.
“Family Bones” | Belt Magazine
Searching for my roots in rural Indiana. Also featuring my grandparents’ house.
“Blood, Sweat, and Tears on the Tracks” | Belt Magazine
Steam Locomotive No. 765 and the man for whom trains are family.
