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Clips
"My Grandson, The Writer" The Smart Set, August 8, 2008 The summer I turned 18, I lived with my grandmother in our family's rambling summer home in New Hampshire's Lakes Region. It was an unusual housing scenario, but somehow the experience kind of launched my writing career. Edited by Jason Wilson. "Wonder Boy" Runner's World, August, 2008 At the age of four, slum kid Budhia Singh ran 40 miles without stopping in the blistering heat of his native India. Then, afterwards, his childhood only grew stranger. Edited by Peter Flax. "Ways and Means", The Washington Post Magazine, June 30, 2008 Russell Means is an American Indian activist, a movie star who played the last Mohican in Last of the Mohicans, and also a political operator who has befriended Muamm Qaddafi, Larry Flynt, and Louis Farrakhan. In late 2007, he seceded from the United States, to launch The Republic of Lakotah. But is Lakotah an actual sovereign nation, or just a state of mind? Edited by David Rowell. "The Green Bicycle Murder" Bicycling, December 2007 On a warm summer evening in 1919, a comely young factory worker named Bella Wright set out for a bicycle ride through the country lanes outside Leicester, England. What happened next involved a revolver, a raven, and a shady character on a high-end green bicycle. Edited by Bill Strickland. "Hail Mary" Mother Jones, March 2007 Built on the swamplands of south Florida, Ave Maria University is the newest Catholic school in the U.S.—and a place where the faith of my fathers has been wholly transmogrified. Edited by Alistair Paulin.
"Wheels of Life" The Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 17, 2006 The tiny, verdant island of Dominica, in the Caribbean, is one of the most absurdly hilly places on earth. In touring about on a bicycle there, I glimpsed my own jagged athletic past. Edited by David Rowell.
"Lost and Found" Backpacker, October 2006 Social worker John Donovan was a monklike figure who lived alone in a succession of dingy $300-a-month apartments. Strange things transpired after he got lost and died in the high mountains of Southern California. Edited by David Howard.
"Shanghai by Bike" Sierra, September 2006 In a booming city mad for the automobile, cyclists are second class citizens. But it’s still a joy to ride the streets, especially when your guide is an industrious pimp. Edited by Marilyn Snell.
"Ars Familia" Portland Monthly, March 2006 (Written with Allie Donahue) The editors of biff, the magazine, weigh in on the perils of publishing the world’s premier zine for kids and their parents. Edited by Camela Raymond.
"Craig Rosebraugh’s War" Inc., October 2005 For years, Craig Rosebraugh was the spokesperson for the Earth Liberation Front, which burns down SUV dealerships and ski lifts in the name of eco-defense. When he changed jobs and opened a blue chip vegan restaurant, his inner anarchist never stopped working overtime. Edited by Dan Ferrara.
"Under the Sheltering Sky" The Washington Post Magazine, September 21, 2003 Writer Paul Bowles spent most of his adult life in Tangier, Morocco. But when you search for his ghost there, what you find is the soul of the city. Edited by David Rowell. Republished in Best American Travel Writing 2004.
"Black Copters over Oregon" Salon, September 8, 2003 Did George W. Bush’s henchmen light a forest fire in Oregon in order to sell Bush’s “Healthy Forest Initiative”? An investigation. Edited by Ed Lempinen.
"Life in Limbostan" Mother Jones, September 2003 In Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants wander the streets, hoping to make it across the Strait of Gibraltar, into mainland Europe. Edited by Tim Dickinson.
"Wrestling with Democracy" The Washington Post Magazine, July 7, 2002 Fourteen Kansas teenagers make their senior class trip to Washington, D.C. Edited by David Rowell.
"Nasty, Brutish, and Loud" Outside, April 2002 The Hatfield-McCoy Recreation Area, in the stripmined hills of West Virginia, is the world’s premier all-terrain-vehicle playground—and oh, what a joy it is to ride there after midnight and toss your empties into the woods! Edited by Jay Stowe.
"End of the Run" Outside, February 2002 Skier Bill Johnson won the gold medal in the downhill in the 1984 Olympics. Then in 1999, when he was 39 years old and ravaged by years of hard drinking, he tried to make a comeback. He crashed, incurring permanent brain damage. Edited by Laura Hohnhold. Republished in Best American Sports Writing 2003.
"The Backyard Expedition" National Geographic Adventure, May 2001 When my daughter was almost six, I thought it would be a good idea to take her kayaking down Oregon’s Tualatin River. Edited by Mark Jannot.
"The Same River Twice" Mother Jones, December 2000 As a travel destination for kayakers, the Los Angeles River—that 50-mile concrete channel that cuts through the heart of the city—is underrated. Edited by Monika Bauerlein. Nominated for a National Magazine Award.
"Pilgrim at Johnson Creek" DoubleTake, Spring 2000 I didn’t really know my hardscrabble Portland neighborhood until I floated the local creek in a $49.95 inflatable raft. Edited by Toby Lester.
"A Glimpse of Eden" The Washington Post Magazine, January 16, 2000 In the love letters he wrote to his sweetheart, my grandfather extolled the joys of fighting in World War I. “Tennis, swimming, teas and dinners with charming French girls,” he said in one 1918 note from Paris. “The beauty here is punctuated by the boom of long range shells (one just went off in the front of the hotel), but no one seems to mind, unless they are actually hit.” Edited by David Rowell.
"Bad Dirt" Salon, April 15, 1999 Gilmanton, New Hampshire, population 3,000, is where novelist Grace Metalious wrote Peyton Place—and also where I spent every summer of my childhood. Local rumor holds that, in fact, Grace did not write the book. Edited by Laura Miller.
"Dissent on Denali" Climbing Magazine, May 1998 Long the debate has raged: Did Frederick indeed summit Mount McKinley in 1906? Edited by Alison Osius. Republished in 20 Years of Climbing Magazine.
"Drive Thru Church" DoubleTake, Spring 1998 Pray Here Ministries’ Rick Schneberger offers absolution in a gravel parking lot on the strip mall fringes of Portland. Edited by Rob Odom.
"The Old Ball Game" The Oregonian, September 19, 1994 My great-great-uncle, Tim Donahue, played catcher for the major league Chicago Colts in the 1890s. When he came to bat once in 1899, according to the Chicago Tribune, “It appeared as though the select party on top of a neighboring building would jump off in excess of delight." Edited by Bob Hicks.
"Bounding Ambition" Northwest Magazine, September 10, 1989 In 1974, in the waning days of the Nixon administration, I attempted to become the pogo stick jumping champion of the world. Edited by Barry Johnson.
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