My first Saturday in Oxford, I walk down the Banbury Road towards St. Giles Church. My small roller bag click clacks over the broken sidewalk. Bells peal in a melodic succession:123456…654321. At first, the ringing seems to be coming from a dated glass and concrete building – a structure, I learned, that some locals consider…
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In the early days of the pandemic, I began sculling on a creek flowing into the San Francisco Bay – a waterway that’s home to egrets, herons, and the occasional northern spotted owl. Wearing a mask inside the boathouse, I joined other fledgling rowers on a novice master’s team. Four years later, I’m still rowing…
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We’re all connected. I was reminded of that when a neighbor mentioned he’d read my story for Alta Journal about traveling to the Arctic Circle last fall. One sentence leapt out at him: “Nothing seemed fixed: water, stars, sky, or people. It was all changing and rotating and moving in a dance governed by randomness.”…
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The subject line was “Hello from New York Times Opinion.” It landed in my inbox about 24-hours after the horrific wildfires on Maui had begun to spread. I’d already checked in with friends who live on the island, to make sure they were safe. Like the rest of the world, I was watching in horror…
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Last fall, I took part in an unusual residency program in the Arctic Circle. I spent two and a half weeks aboard Antigua, a three-masted sailing ship with 29 artists and writers on an expedition to explore the Svalbard archipelago. It was quite a trip. I wrote a story about my experience for the current…
Read MoreFounded in 1931 during the depths of America’s Great Depression, the Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards celebrates its 92nd anniversary this year and tonight is the award’s ceremony. Please join us at 6 p.m. PT to honor some of the state’s most distinguished writers. It will be streaming at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2023-06-05/92nd-annual-california-book-awards The purpose of the awards…
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A few weeks ago, I was asked by a producer at Wondery if I’d be interested in being interviewed for the podcast American History Tellers about Hawaii’s last queen. I hesitated at first because my book on Hawaii had been published more than a decade ago. Agreeing to the interview would mean that I’d have…
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Founded in 1931 during the depths of America’s Great Depression, the Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards celebrates its 92nd anniversary this year. The purpose of the awards is to highlight the work of California authors – a praiseworthy goal at a time when the publishing industry (then and now) remains focused on East Coast…
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For an example of history being written by the victors, consider the case of Jane Lathrop Stanford, the victim of one of California’s most puzzling unsolved murder mysteries. As co-founder and primary benefactor of Stanford University, Jane died of strychnine poisoning in 1905 in Waikiki. For nearly a century, the fact of her murder…
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March is Women’s History Month and I’m thrilled to take part on Friday, March 19th in a virtual panel at this year’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women NGO Forum. The event is being organized by the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking, a public-private partnership established more than a decade ago by…
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