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The New Yorker

Personal History

Essays and memoirs.

Of Yiddish, Litvaks, and the Evil Eye

A smattering of Yiddish happens to be all the Yiddish I have.

Under the Bridge of Sighs

On watching—and rewatching—“A Little Romance,” George Roy Hill’s late-seventies classic teen-age love story.

Cast Out of the Garden

While I flopped through Hebrew school, my father dreamed of Gramercy Park.

Looking at Art with Peter Schjeldahl

Recalling a friendship with The New Yorker’s late art critic.

How to Eat a Rattlesnake

In my native Oklahoma, snake meat was a masculine trophy, edible proof that you were willing to tangle with death.

Catching the Fire Bug

I set out to fight fires—then discovered that I loved them.

His Latex Goddess

I spent months in an all-consuming affair with a man who refused to meet me in person. How did this happen?

Missing My Dad’s Funeral

At thirteen, I went to sleepaway camp, consumed by crushes, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and my father’s worsening battle with AIDS.

A Question of Legacy

Some of my ancestors had money, and some held awful beliefs. I set out to investigate what I once stood to inherit.

The Power of Food for People with Dementia

At a dinner party designed to bring back memories, I found myself wishing that my father could have been there.