selected work
reporting
features, trends, profiles
Theaster Gates on Afro-mingei (The Japan Times, 2022)
/ Interview with the American artist about his installation "The Listening House."
Sayaka Murata on being an alien (Wired, 2022)
/ Profile of the Japanese writer, author of Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings.
What's not in a name? (The Believer, 2022)
/ An historical inquiry into the weight of a name in America.
Freddy Mamani on design as decolonization (Quartz, 2019)
/ Profile of the Bolivian architect, whose buildings have become status symbols in El Alto.
Amazon as a book publisher (Quartz, 2018)
/ Feature on the company's potential to take over the mass market.
Emotional self-defense (Quartz, 2018)
/ Feature on a gender-based violence prevention program that teaches boundary setting and hug avoidance.
Bogus bestsellers (Quartz, 2017)
/ Mini-investigation on a no-name author who gamed the NYT bestsellers list.
How do you draw a circle? (Quartz, 2017)
/ With Nikhil Sonnad, a look into the relationship between language, culture, and drawing. Recipient of a bronze Malofiej Award and a gold award from Kantar’s Information Is Beautiful Awards.
Maverick romance writers (Quartz, 2016)
/ Feature on self-published romance writers making bank. Recipient of the Veritas Media Award from Romance Writers of America.
appraising
reviews and criticism
Yayoi Kusama's legacy (The Japan Times, 2023)
/ Critical essay on the artist's Louis Vuitton takeover.
Junko Takase’s Oishii Gohan ga Taberaremasu Yōni (The Japan Times, 2022)
/ Review of the Akutagawa prize-winning novel about food and feminism.
Baek Sehee’s I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (The Japan Times, 2022)
/ Review of the South Korean mental health memoir.
Ghibli Park (The Japan Times, 2022)
/ Critical essay on the Aichi park and what it means for Studio Ghibli's legacy.
Setouchi Triennale 2022 (The Japan Times, 2022)
/ Dispatch from the festival's lesser-known islands.
Walter De Maria's "The Lightning Field" (The Believer, 2021)
/ Review-essay on the New Mexico land work.
Christian Marclay's "Found in Odawara" (ArtReview, 2021)
/ Review of the artist's sound performance at the Enoura Observatory in Kanagawa.
teamLab's "art with rinkan sauna" (ArtReview Asia, 2021)
/ Review of the digital collective's sauna-as-art experience in Tokyo.
Mieko Kawakami’s Heaven (The Washington Post, 2021)
/ Review of the author's novel about bullying.
Diane Nguyen on Netflix's Bojack Horseman (Slate, 2020)
/ Critical essay on the development of the show's essential wet blanket.
R.O. Kwon's The Incendiaries (The New York Times, 2018)
/ Review of the author's debut novel about cults and first love.
Ai Weiwei/Herzog and de Mueron's "Hansel & Gretel" (Quartz, 2017)
/ Review of the interactive installation at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.
Benesse Art Site Naoshima and Teshima (TED Ideas, 2014)
/ Essay on destination art based on a visit to the Setouchi art islands.
waxing
odes and essays
On bathing at the rave (The Japan Times, 2022)
/ Love letter to the ladies' onsen in the midst of festival grime.
Hot pockets (the weekly grief, 2022)
/ From my newsletter, finding warmth and safety inside isolation and ignorance.
The iro's journey (the weekly grief, 2022)
/ The eroticism of autumn and the human endeavor to make.
A test of character (the weekly grief, 2022)
/ Continued failure to understand personality.
The snailest mail (the weekly grief, 2022)
/ Messages across oceans.
Peak women (the weekly grief, 2022)
/ Scenes from walking the Kohechi route of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail.
On traveling with old parents (Catapult, 2021)
/ Essay on how to see the world.
On my family's escape from South Vietnam (Quartz, 2016)
/ Family history.
inventing
fiction
/ Pilot episode of an original comedy about the internet news industry. Semi-finalist for Finish Line Script Competition for original TV pilot script.
Hail Caesar (Scholastic/PUSH, 2007)
/ YA novel. Manuscript was the winner of the Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Award for Novel Writing. Named an NYPL Book for the Teen Age. Edited by David Levithan.
/ With David Webber, full-day conference that included talks from Chris Jackson, Ian Bremmer, and Jo Firestone.
TEDxNewYork (2014)
/ With David Webber and Adam Kroopnick, full-day conference that included talks from Lam Thuy Vo, Starlee Kine, and Will Stephen.
TED Salon: The Fiction Issue (2013)
/ Evening event that included talks from Parul Sehgal and Téa Obreht.
