Featured Essays

THE DESIGNER BAG I THOUGHT WOULD CHANGE MY LIFE
In a personal essay, bestselling author Chris Cander writes about the time in her life she thought having the right accessory would change everything…read more

HOW MY DAUGHTER’S HOMEWORK INSPIRED MY NOVEL
One evening in December 2019, my daughter, then a senior at a women’s college preparatory, thrust a handful of pages at me. “Mom, you have to read this.” …read more

RESEARCH NOTES: A GRACIOUS NEIGHBOR
Unlike all my novels before this one, which demanded a great deal of research to achieve a level of authenticity, this book required no trips to the library, no phone calls or emails to experts across the country or around the world…read more

A PLAYLIST FOR A GRACIOUS NEIGHBOR
[This] lack of musicality in the story, which was actually a first for me, didn’t preclude me from compiling this list of songs to accompany the novel’s themes…read more

JOURNEY TO DEATH VALLEY
I cracked the window to let in a rush of cool November air carrying the scents of dry earth, creosote, and mesquite brush, and hoped that I wasn’t about to waste a week away from my family and a couple thousand dollars on this trip…read more

HOW TO MOBILIZE A MOVEMENT
After Stalin withdrew his support of Israel, Jews were trapped behind the Iron Curtain with no chance to rise up or to leave. At best, they were discriminated against and denied freedom to practice their religion. At worst, Jews were surveilled by the KGB, fired from their jobs, arrested on false charges, detained in psychiatric hospitals and gulags, and refused permission to emigrate…read more

WHEN THE SENTIMENTAL CLUTTER IN YOUR LIFE IS A WHOLE PIANO
In that brief, serendipitous meeting, she’d given me the idea for what would become my favorite and most ambitious project to date…read more

UNDERCOVER SOUNDTRACK
Though I’m a writer of prose, it’s music that seems to me the most transcendent art form. Music casts a collective spell that detaches listeners from the tangible world and encourages a sort of free fall of emotional experience that doesn’t require words to be passionately felt…read more

A PLAYLIST FOR WHISPER HOLLOW
Although I have no gift for playing any kind of instrument—including my voice—I try to harness the power of music in my novels. In fact, I am a writer probably because I can’t be a musician…read more

THE FIRST TIME I SAW A STRANGER READING MY BOOK
My seatmate on a flight to Minneapolis was a smartly dressed woman in her mid-fifties. She gave me a polite demi-smile when I took my aisle seat, but the way she turned her attention to…read more

THE STORY BEHIND WHISPER HOLLOW
My son started telling me ghost stories before he was two years old. The most memorable was when we were out for a walk, and from his stroller, he pointed to a passing school bus…read more

WHERE WRITERS WRITE
Each of us begins with a sense of place. Place is an essential and inexorable part of our understanding of the world, and later, ourselves. Place is where our families of origin forged their lives. It may be where we were born, grew up, experienced our most mundane or our most profound moments…read more