I'm the author of Much to Your Chagrin: A Memoir of Embarrassment, a memoir of a year that I spent collecting embarrassing stories, and discovered, much to my chagrin, that my own life had become the biggest embarrassing story. Recently, I published Battle Dress: What I Wore to Confront My Past, a longform essay about how I came to reckon with decades-old sexual violence.
I write other things, too.
On grief manifesting as fear, as an initiation to the grieving process.
On love as a metric for billion-dollar philanthropy (Quartz).
On the most memorable acts of receiving, from some notable givers (Quartz).
On the link between materialism and spiritualism, via the lens of fine gemstones (The Numinous).
On surrendering to the creative process and, well, life (The Huffington Post).
VIDEO
Moving, For You, a short film I produced, conceived and performed on the beauty of empathy and human connection. Directed, shot, and edited by Austin Wideman.
This clip is from 2011, when I put my name in the hat at the Moth and didn't get called. I was so relieved, until, at the last moment, their tenth storyteller bailed and they called my name. It's a story about the very first time I ever read in public.
Reading of The Rings, 2009.
Book trailer for Much to Your Chagrin, 2009. Directed, shot, and edited by Alicia Peyrano.