Novelist.
Journalist.
Storyteller.
I’ve followed stories across borders and through thresholds, into war zones, refugee camps, and remote mountain villages, in search of what holds us together. I’ve interviewed Indigenous healers in the Amazon, mothers surviving Ebola, farmers weathering drought, and more. Again and again, I’ve witnessed the quiet grace of resilience.
Along the way, I’ve founded two literary nonprofits, led communications at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and worked with global NGOs and foundations. What connects it all is a belief: storytelling—honest, human, deeply felt—can help us see one another more clearly.
I’ve Gone to Look for America
At a moment when the country feels fractured and in flux, my son and I, armed with a shared curiosity, set out to meet fellow travelers pausing at Interstate 95 rest stops to stretch, snack, and exhale. Through an intergenerational lens, we’re tracing this asphalt artery to ask not just where Americans are going, but where America is. Awarded 1st place for first-person narrative essay by the Society for Features Journalism in 2026.
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The Children Who Loved a Killer
Forty-five years ago, I sat with a foster mother while the state of Indiana executed her son for raping and killing a woman and drowning her three young children. The public story ended at the electric chair. The family’s did not. This is a story about the long afterlife of violence, the politics of sorrow and who is allowed to grieve. It is also about a brother and sister speaking publicly for the first time, and about the largely invisible group they represent: families of the executed, who are asked to absorb a grief the world has no interest in holding.
→ FULL STORY ON THE GUARDIAN
Vigilantes at Dawn
Vigilantes wearing white armbands torn from flour sacks and pillowcases forced nearly 1,200 people into cattle cars at gunpoint in Bisbee, Arizona. My great-grandfather Jovan, a Montenegrin immigrant and copper miner, fled over a mountain pass in the desert heat, 2,000 armed men at his back.
→ FULL STORY ON LONGREADS
Tracing Memory
Over several years, I traveled with my son Cheney, an award-winning photojournalist, to Starr County, Texas—one of the least-resourced counties in the U.S., and one of the hardest hit by Alzheimer’s. TracingMemory.com is a tribute to the quiet bravery we witnessed again and again, and for anyone who has ever had to let go, and hold on, at the same time.
→ VIEW THE PROJECTImpact
Stories
From Africa to Asia, Latin America to the heart of U.S. communities, these stories trace moments of grit and grace—where farmers, health workers, teachers, and changemakers push forward, often quietly, to expand access to food, energy, care, and equitable opportunity. Told across borders and through upheaval, they bear witness to the everyday courage behind progress—and the human pulse within systems change.
→ READ ESSAYS & ARTICLES
My Books
Iris Rising
After her husband’s sudden death, Iris is drawn into a homeless veteran’s unraveling and must decide what it means to witness, forgive, and go on. Laced with dark humor, unshakable love, and the ache of family fracture, the novel moves between tenderness and blunt force to explore how we live with regret, how memory reshapes the past, and how making amends might become a form of grace.