Selected work
Essays
“Billions Have Gone Into Perfecting the Climate-Friendly Burger. What if the Answer Is Already Here?”
Atlanta magazine, June 2022
“Taking the Slow Road: Exploring Georgia’s Ocean Highway”
Atlanta magazine, May 2020
“The Haunting of Drums and Shadows: On the Stories and Landscapes the Federal Writers’ Project Left Unexplored”
Lapham’s Quarterly, May 2020
“Governor Kemp Has Made His Choice Clear. What About Yours?”
Atlanta magazine, April 2020
“The Afterlife of Fanny Kemble’s Journal”
Lapham’s Quarterly, July 2019
“Into the Dismal Swamp”
Popula, September 2018
“Ticks Are an Emblem of the Anthropocene”
The Outline, September 2018
"Bread and Roses, and Determination, on a Dark January Weekend"
Epicurious, January 2017
"Transform Your Vegetable Garden With This One Simple Quack"
Epicurious, September 2016
"Country Enough: From Conway and George to Maddie & Tae"
Los Angeles Review of Books, March 2015
"Bear Stories"
The Awl, December 2015
"Beauty and Ruin in Pigeon Forge"
The Awl, July 2015
Reporting
“My Town: Patt Gunn’s Historic Savannah”
Garden & Gun, February 2024
“What Makes a State a Good Place to Do Business? (And What Does That Mean for Workers?)”
The Cost of Living Project, February 2024
“The Void That General Motors Left Behind”
Canopy Atlanta Lakewood Heights issue, October 2023
“Climate Change Is on the Ballot This November—and Every Elected Official in Georgia Has a Role to Play in Fighting It”
Atlanta magazine, November 2022
“Climate Change Is Making the Whole City Hotter—but Rising Temps May Put Some Atlantans in More Danger Than Others”
Atlanta magazine, August 2021
“Tracking the Long, Strange Trip of the Golden Ray”
Atlanta magazine, April 2021
“Georgia’s Forests Are a Shrinking Line of Defense Against Global Warming. Can Janisse Ray Make Us Care Enough to Save Them?”
Atlanta magazine, August 2019
“Georgia’s Vanishing Coast: With Stronger Storms, Higher Tides, and Rising Sea Levels, How High Will the Water Go?”
Atlanta magazine, July 2018
"How to Cook a Muskrat (You Have to Skin It First)"
Epicurious, May 2017
"The Soup That Symbolizes Haitian Freedom"
Epicurious, December 2016
"Meet the GoSun Oven, the Solar-Powered Oven of the Future"
Epicurious, March 2016
"Can a Poor Chicago Neighborhood Be Reborn as a National Park?"
Next City, July 2015
"The Floating Forest"
Chicago Reader, September 2012 (reprinted in the Utne Reader)
"The Last Big Bang"
Chicago Reader, September 2011
Profiles
“Does This Scot Know Oats Best?”
Oatly, November 2022
“This Chattanooga-Based Baker Makes Meme-Worthy Creations”
Heated, September 2019
"The Freewheelin' Mark Bittman"
Epicurious, June 2017
"Kerry James Marshall Spent His Life Bringing Black Faces to Classic Art"
Chicago magazine, April 2016
"Can the MacArthur Foundation Find Its Mojo?"
Chicago magazine, September 2015
"The Natural Selection of Jenny Kendler"
Chicago Reader, June 2014
"Susan Nussbaum's Next Act"
Chicago Reader, May 2013
Reviews
“Atlanta’s 75 Best Restaurants” package (editor)
Atlanta magazine, October 2022
“14 Best Things to Do in Savannah, Georgia”
Condé Nast Traveler, July 2020
“Going South”
Bookpage, June 2019
“From Netflix to Politics: How Gabriela Cámara is shaping discussions on food and labor through a Mexico City lens”
Heated, May 2019
"The Antarctic Ice Sheet Is on the Verge of Collapse and We Evaluated This Season's Freshest Pumpkin Spice Products"
Epicurious, 2016
"Review: 'Song of the Shank' by Jeffery Renard Allen"
Chicago Tribune, 2014
"Review: 'Lost for Words' by Edward St. Aubyn"
Chicago Tribune, 2014
"The Deserts Bloom"
Los Angeles Review of Books, 2014
"Henry Darger, in the Realms of the Possibly Real"
Chicago Reader, 2013
"Ay Chiwowa? Oy Vey"
Chicago Reader, 2013
"Will the 80s Ever End?"
Chicago Reader, 2012
Other/older
“Springtime Is the Right Time to Cook with Pine”
Epicurious, 2019
"A Loving Portrait of Appalachian Food, Past and Future"
Epicurious, 2016
"How Cookbooks Write (and Rewrite) History"
Epicurious, 2016
"We Discovered the New Kale, and It's Literally Everything"
Epicurious, 2016
"How to Build a Better Buttercream"
Epicurious, 2015
"Use the Orange. The Whole Orange."
Epicurious, 2015
"Milwaukee Suburb's Water Request Is a Test for the Great Lakes Compact"
Earth Island Journal, 2014
"The Art of Collecting"
Chicago Reader, 2013
"The Puzzler and the Puzzled"
Chicago Reader, 2012