The Well-Stocked and Gilded Cage: Essays

Five essays on pets―a dog, a bird, a tortoise, a ferret, and a chameleon―anchor this wild menagerie, exploring childhood spirituality, global positioning systems, wildlife conservation, and climate change. In a wide range of tones and styles, from lyric to visual, photojournalism to collage, THE WELL-STOCKED AND GILDED CAGE swings between Pennsylvania, Nepal, California, Cambodia, Arizona, Myanmar, Delaware, and Bangladesh.

From THE WELL-STOCKED AND GILDED CAGE, "Dogsucker: The Oral Exam" was selected as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2016, compiled by Jonathan Franzen. “Give Me That For Nothing, Now I Am Going Away” was selected as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2015, compiled by Ariel Levy. “Of No Ground: Late Days In the Country of Eighteen Tides,” earned Terrain’s 6th Annual Creative Nonfiction Award, and the titular essay, “The Well-Stocked and Gilded Cage,” won Prairie Schooner’s 2016 Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing.