Articles
National Magazine Award finalists
"'THIS IS NOT WHAT NORMAL BIRDING IS LIKE,' GALLAGHER CLARIFIES AT SOME POINT TO THE WRITER, IN CASE THIS HAS BEEN LOST ON HER."
"MAC McCLELLAND DELIVERED IN A BIG WAY" -CHICAGO TRIBUNE
FEATURED IN THE BEST AMERICAN MAGAZINE WRITING AND BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING 2011.
Other features
“I woke up last December in a hospital bed and could suddenly feel, in a way I could never have fathomed, that this was what being alive was.”
“I didn’t have a strict agenda. I was open, as one needs to be here, to where I would end up.”
"BLACK LIVES MATTER?" AN OLDER MAN READ OFF THE BANNER. "TO WHO?"
"'IT'S OKAY,' HE SAID, SMILING, 'IF IT'S TERRORISTS, WE CAN JUST THROW PORK.'"
"'WHEN YOU'RE A MAN, EVERYTHING IS EASY, EVEN IF YOU'RE AN IDIOT.'"
"IN THE VERSION OF DIRTY DANCING FRENCH CHILDREN GREW UP WITH, HE SAYS, 'AND TAKE THAT DISGUSTING MAKEUP OFF YOUR FACE —YOU LOOK LIKE A WHORE.'"
"IT'S PROBABLY BEST YOU KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME."
"'ONE TIME, A BAD GUY IN IRAQ HAD A KNIFE AND MY DAD KILLED HIM,' SHE SAYS, APROPOS OF NOTHING."
"I'D RATHER THEY SEND A MIDGET TO MY HOUSE TO KNOCK ON THE DOOR, PUNCH ME IN THE NUTS AND SAY, 'THANKS FOR BEIN' PAWNEE.'"
“‘The number of people who’ve been murdered in an Equinox locker room,’ I speculated to my boyfriend as we lay in bed one night, ‘is probably zero.’”
"IF WE DON'T LEGALIZE, STUDY, AND UTILIZE THESE PLANTS AND OTHER MEDICINES, PEOPLE WHO COULD BE SAVED WILL DIE."
"IS PROSTITUTION JUST ANOTHER JOB?" (COVER, NEW YORK MAGAZINE)
"THE FIGHT ABOUT WILD HORSES IS CERTAINLY PART OF AMERICAN HISTORY."
"WHEN I LATER LISTED THE AMENITIES TO A REFUGEE EXPERT, SHE REPLIED, 'I'VE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A THING.'"
"HE HASN'T HAD A DRINK SINCE 1999 AND IT'S BEEN EVEN LONGER SINCE HE HUFFED PAINT."
"DO YOU WANT TO SEE MY GUN?" MY SISTER ASKS ME.
"IN ANY CASE, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, HE SEEMED ALTOGETHER EXTREMELY UNLIKE A PERSON WHO HAD RECENTLY MURDERED SOMEONE."
"MARY SAYS THAT GRANDIN ONCE TOLD HER PRATHER COWS MIGHT MOO BECAUSE THEY SMELL BLOOD AND GET HIP TO THE SCHEME."
"FISHERMEN'S WIVES FACE POST-SPILL TRAUMA" -WINNER OF THE SIDNEY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS JOURNALISM
“What I was chronicling wasn't that Asha could live as trans but that I could.”
"WHEN NOT GUILTY IS A LIFE SENTENCE" (COVER, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE)
"AZIS IS DRESSED LIKE A FAITH-ERA GEORGE MICHAEL INSTEAD OF IN HIS SIGNATURE STYLE: SEXPOT DRAG." (COVER PACKAGE, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE)
"THIS IS WHY ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK IS NOT JUST A POPULAR SHOW BUT A HISTORIC EVENT: IT HAS LADIES IN IT."
"'WE GOTTA ROLL, BITCHES.'"
FEBRUARY 2014 SUNSET MAGAZINE FEATURE (PRINT ONLY)
"INDISPENSABLE...A BRILLIANT PORTRAIT, SIMULTANEOUSLY INTIMATE, TERRIFYING, AND INSPIRATIONAL." -THE AMERICAN PROSPECT
"HIGHLY RECOMMEND McCLELLAND'S DISPATCHES FROM PORT-AU-PRINCE" -COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW
"SOME OF THE NATION'S BEST ON-THE-SCENE COVERAGE OF THE BP OIL SPILL" -GLENN GREENWALD
Selected Essays, Columns, and Criticism
LOVE IN TRANSLATION: HE SPOKE FRENCH. I SPOKE ENGLISH. GOOGLE TO THE RESCUE. (WASHINGTON POST)
HOW I LEARNED TO BE OK WITH FEELING SAD (BUZZFEED)
REVIEW OF HECTOR TOBAR'S DEEP DOWN DARK (SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW)
12 TALES OF GETTING IT ON IN THE DIGITAL AGE: DIRTY SKYPING (WIRED)
WHO'S TO BLAME WHEN AN INJURED SOLDIER KILLS CIVILIANS? (REUTERS)
LOLO JONES HAS NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF (REUTERS)
THE NEW YORK TIMES' RAPE-FRIENDLY REPORTING (MOTHER JONES)
STILL WHITEWASHING HURRICANE KATRINA, FIVE YEARS LATER (MOTHER JONES)