Thanks for stopping by. I got my start in magazine writing as an intern and then editor at Surfing Magazine (RIP). My most recent work has been for The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, Yale E360, Outside Magazine, and NJ Spotlight News. My story, about a Jersey Shore falconer, was a notable mention in the 2023 edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing. Another article, about a biologist’s fight to save the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, was included in The New York Times Great Reads, which recommends “one piece of exceptional writing from The Times” each weekday. In 2023, I won “Best In-Depth Reporting” in the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists’ annual awards. I also wrote a book called The Drowning of Money Island, about a community left behind in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, and have been the recipient of reporting grants from the Pulitzer Center. If I had to pin my writing interests to a single theme, it might be that I love to explore stories that inhabit the narrow corners where water and humans collide.
SELECTED WRITING
The Crab Kings
Stalin, Putin and climate change inadvertently turned Norway’s most desperate fishing spot into a global seafood capital.
Avian Flu Outbreaks in Marine Mammals Mark New Era for Deadly Virus
A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza has killed thousands of wild birds and is now infecting seals and other marine mammals. Researchers know the virus can jump from birds to mammals, but they are on alert to see if it can be transmitted from mammal to mammal.
They Outlasted the Dinosaurs. Can They Survive Us?
Sturgeon are disappearing from North American rivers where they thrived for millions of years. And the quest to save them is exposing the limits of the Endangered Species Act.
This ancient forest in Bear Swamp West is a gem. Can it be saved?
As sea levels rise, saltwater is pushing into the swamp, threatening to turn the old-growth forest into a ghost.
A New Road Across the Tundra
An Arctic community opens to the world.
A Death at Sea on the ‘Row of Life’
At 59 years old and with a preexisting condition, Paralympic rower Angela Madsen had plenty to worry about as the coronavirus spread across the country. So she dipped the oars of her small rowboat in the Pacific and pointed the bow toward Hawaii. She never returned.
When a Hurricane Hits the Delaware Bay
On the impact of Super Storm Sandy.