What was your first job as a journalist?
Editorial Assistant at Zyzzyva, the great West Coast literary magazine. I opened, logged and read submissions from the slush pile.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email queries are best for me.
What's your favorite social network?
Bluesky.
Why did you become a journalist?
I love working with words and finding the best way to express an idea. I love learning new things. I do that every time I take an assignment.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I put out my own, unauthorized, underground high school newspaper, which caused a small uproar and got me a one-day suspension. :)
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I enjoy writing stories on unusual trends that span wide geographic areas, like my WSJ feature on the great European hamburger.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Learn how to pitch. Tailor each pitch to the publication in question. Make it a pitch that is almost impossible to turn down.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
There have been so many it's hard to pick a favorite. Anything on a subject I don't (or even can't) cover.
What's your favorite drink?
Currently it's pu'er tea, but I doubt if anyone will believe me.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
At this point I still haven't written for the Washington Post, and I'm a subscriber. Their politics coverage has really improved.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
The stories I write are almost always on subjects I come up with personally. Most pitches from PR agencies are simply not useful for me.
