Non-Academic Writing

Books

I've written two books of philosophically-themed creative nonfiction: 

• How To Be Multiple: The Philosophy of Twins (Bloomsbury USA, 2023 / Manchester University Press U.K., 2024, info here): a personal take on the role that twins play in illuminating questions of identity, love, freedom and objectification, drawing on philosophy, literature and popular culture, with illustrations by my twin, Julia.

• Unreasonable: a comic-intellectual memoir that explores the human search for meaning through--and sometimes against--philosophy, the endeavor I've organized much of my life around.

I'm represented by Alison Lewis at Frances Goldin Literary Agency.

Public Philosophy 

Philosophical essays / op-eds / book excerpts

On Twins

• "I'm a twin. Why do people think we're so creepy?"--good question (The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age, 2024)

• "Twins in Wonderland"--on Tweedledum and Tweedledee (The Los Angeles Review of Books, 2023)

• "Both One and Yet Distinct"--on twins and personhood (Aeon, 2023)

• "Is there any bond stronger than twinship?"--on twins and romance (book excerpt, LitHub, 2023)

• "If I betrayed her, I couldn't live"--ditto (book excerpt, The Guardian, 2023)

• "Are Twins Kinda Gay?"--on twins and queerness (The Yale Review, 2023)

• "It's Not You, It's Me" --on the philosophy of twins (The Point, 2019)

On Philosophy

• "Help!" (The Point, 2022)--#1 in a 4-part series on academic philosophy & everyday life. (In Chinese, here)

• "What's your philosophy of life?" (The Point, 2022)--#2

• "The Meaning of Life" (The Point, 2022)--#3

• "The Consolations of Analytic Philosophy" (The Point, 2022)--#4 (In Chinese, here)

• "Is philosophy absurd? Only when you're doing it right" (Aeon, 2018)--just lean in. (In Italian, here; in Portuguese, here)

On Memoir

• "In Defense of Memoirs" (Psyche, 2021)--on skepticism about narrative

• "But what about Mom?" (Brevity, 2021)--on the ethics of writing about others

On...Ants?

• "The Ants Who Prefer Not To" (The Daily Ant, 2018)--on doing nothing

Book reviews

• "The Philosophy of Shittiness" (The Los Angeles Review of Books, 2022.) (In Persian, here)

• "Doing philosophy while doing time" (The Philosopher, 2022)

Interviews

• "Two sets of twins discuss queerness, disability and 'twintersectionality'"--interview with Sally and Etta Bollinger and Julia de Bres (The Spinoff, 2024)

• "An Effort at Reconciliation"--interview with Lea Ypi on memoir and philosophy (The Raven, 2023)

Personal Essays 

• "Sea-dreaming" (Landfall, 2022)--on the non-existence of the Atlantic Ocean

• "Elevation" (Colorado Review, 2022)--on the erotics of elevators (a "notable" in Best American Essays 2023)

• "Exile in Catville" (Another Chicago Magazine, 2021)--on a celebrity cat & existential dislocation 

• "Hotel Tennessee" (The Los Angeles Review, 2021)--on California & time

• "Gimme Shelter" (The Point, 2020)--on confinement & philosophy

• "Love is a Nine-Letter Word" (The New York Times, 2018)--on my dad & word games

Humor / Fiction

• "Hello Twelve-Year-Old Reader, My Name is Heathcliff and I am Sorry that I am About to Ruin Your Future Romantic Life" (McSweeney's, 2019)

• "Samuel Beckett Responds to Messages I Received on Tinder" (McSweeney's, 2018)

• "International Maritime Signal Flags That Would Be Useful During Sex" (McSweeney's, 2017)

• "Writing Advice To My Students That Would Also Have Been Good Sex Advice For My High School Boyfriends" (McSweeney's, 2017). Reprinted in Sam Riley and Chris Monks (eds.), Keep Scrolling Until You Feel Something, McSweeney's, 2019, and Dinty Moore and Tom Hazuka (eds.), Flash Nonfiction Funny, Woodhall Press, 2018)

• "Welcome to the Hindenburg Review Writers' Workshop" (The Rumpus, 2017)

• "Ornithopthalmology" in Microchondria II: 42 Short Stories (Harvard Bookstore, 2015)

Other

I'm on the editorial committee of The Raven, a magazine of philosophical essays written for intellectually curious readers with or without an academic background in philosophy.

Every second year I offer a writing workshop, Philosophy in the First Person, through Wellesley's Calderwood Program in Public Writing. The class introduces students to forms of philosophical writing that foreground personal voice, narrative and literary style, and helps them develop their own pieces of  autobiographical philosophy.

I've attended the Bread Loaf, Kenyon Review,  Tin House, and Skidmore writing workshops in literary nonfiction.