“Seven Hours in the Air with Some Record Breaking Balloonists”: reportage on my adventures over the Swiss Alps for Atlas Obscura:
“When we entered the clouds I started to question the decisions that led me to dangle in a wicker basket 8,000 feet above sea level with nothing between me and the alpine chop but a bit of plywood, straw, and air…”
“Over the Alps by Balloon”: more ballooning adventures in Lodestars Anthology. 
“We launch the balloon pre-dawn from an obscure airfield in the petit Swiss city of Villeneuve, just aside Lac Leman. I do not feel the moment we depart earth. Our rise doesn’t coincide with the burst of flame overhead. Rather, it’s like call and response. The ground retreats…fast…then faster…”(print only: order here)
More work for Lodestars can be found here or ordered here!
Travel with me to Ireland, Germany, Mexico, and Spain.
“Recipes for Border Walls “ : F&B: Voices from the Kitchen live from the Brava Theater, SF.
A childhood story from Budapest about cooking, politics, and borders suddenly becomes relevant again…
“Home” : a short literary-reading film of me made by the fantastic Hiroomi Horiuchi
“In winter, I moved indoors, made coffee in the morning, and washed my cup out in the sink as I looked out the kitchen window at the rusted fields. The old house at the end of the two-mile dirt road smelled of mold and decay. No one had bothered to clean up or lock up after my grandfather died. So I trespassed beneath the doorbell where he had engraved his name and with the wood he had chopped, I built a fire. At night, close to the flames, I tamed myself. The maples in the yard crimsoned. I played Beethoven records on the turntable, pressed my ear to the speaker, and listened a thousandth time for the beginning of his deafness…” Kristen Cosby, short-story, Alaska Quarterly Review
“Visions” in The Spirit of Disruption, Outpost 19
“Drownings are alike but never identical. Even my own isn’t the same from one recollection to another, as I am both the woman who remembers and the child awaiting rescue…”–Kristen Cosby
Anthology description: “Twenty-eight landmark essays from The Normal School magazine — the standard-bearer for creative nonfiction today. From a diverse list of authors, startling reflections on the exceptional and the everyday. An essential guide to the art of nonfiction with new commentary from each contributor: Joe Bonomo, Kristen Cosby, Timothy Denevi, Silas Hansen, Caitlin Horrocks, Todd W. Kaneko, Matthew Komatsu, Dickson Lam, EJ Levy, Patrick Madden, Brenda Miller/Julie Marie Wade, Thomas Mira Y Lopez, Ander Monson, Rick Moody, Dinty W. Moore, Jaclyn Moyer, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Jericho Parms, Elena Passarello, Lia Purpura, Colin Rafferty, David Shields, Margot Singer, Ana Maria Spagna, Natalie Vestin, Jerald Walker and Rachel Yoder.”
A reflection on the crafting of this essay can be found here in “The Normal School”.
“The Baker of Milna” in The Pleasure Principle, Amaryllis Publishing House
“Antonio Ferrera II exited his patisserie well after dark and turn towards the house of his mistress. He’d scrubbed the storefront and locked the door to the storeroom, where he’d left croissant dough rising on the counters, sweets covered and awaiting display in the morning. His son, Antonio Ferrera III, would arrive before dawn to begin the morning baking and open the shop. Since the boy had come of age, the father and son had shared the responsibilities of the ship equally, alternating days. The father working while his son slept, or sat on a bench out front drinking coffee in the shade, and vice-versa. Antonio Ferrera II’s knees ached. His back ached. The beauty and virility of his handsome Italian father lent itself to a heavy-set build when fed with pastry dough, but he still had a full head of hair, deep pewter grey, and an eager squid between his legs. One of discerning tastes and hungers.
He tucked a small box of marzipans under his arm…” -Kristen Cosby.
“Marooned” in The Moment, Harper Perennial
Anthology description: “From the creators of Six-Word Memoirs comes The Moment, a collection of personal stories from writers both famous and obscure revealing how a single instant changed their lives forever. An innocuous decision, an unforeseen accident, a chance conversation, a tag sale, a terrorist strike, a tweet . . . sometimes all it takes is a single moment to redirect the course of an entire life. In the tradition of Smith magazine’s Not Quite What I Was Planning and the sensational Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak—and in the spirit of StoryCorps, the Moth, and This American Life—The Moment unveils everyday people’s inner lives in narratives of all shapes and sizes, with stories from six to 1,000 words, photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, and more. It’s enough to change your life forever.”
“We anchored in an uninhabited nook of the Nova Scotia coast where the surf pounded rocks into round gems. Boulders divided into pebbles, small enough to be lifted by the short rough waves and dragged, rumbling, down the steep incline. The resounding percussion could be heard across the harbour, an orchestra of stones… ” Kristen Cosby, Kenyon Review Online
“NONE OF MY MEMORIES ARE MY OWN”
A devastating auto accident stole Derrick Gaines’ memory. He and his wife, Pitt med alum Anna Gaines, have learned to navigate a new life and have fallen in love again.
More articles….
“Julie Magarian Blander Imagines A New Kind of Vaccine.” Pitt Med Magazine
“He Seemed to Be Trapped in A World He Didn’t Like.” Pitt Med Magazine
“Tiny Boppers, Teenaged Thrill Seeking At the Cellular Level.” Pitt Med Magazine
“Mother’s Math, A New Fetal Genetic Test.” Pitt Med Magazine
“Unexpected Cave Dwellers” Proto Magazine
Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction, W.W. Norton, essays on craft.
Anthology descripton: “Writers of memoir and narrative nonfiction are experiencing difficult days with the discovery that some well-known works in the genre contain exaggerations–or are partially fabricated. But what are the parameters of creative nonfiction? Keep It Real begins by defining creative nonfiction. Then it explores the flexibility of the form–the liberties and the boundaries that allow writers to be as truthful, factual, and artful as possible. A succinct but rich compendium of ideas, terms, and techniques, Keep It Real clarifies the ins and outs of writing creative nonfiction. Starting with acknowledgment of sources, running through fact-checking, metaphor, and navel gazing, and responsibilities to their subjects, this book provides all the information you need to write with verve while remaining true to your story.”
