Other Writing

On Eliza Scidmore

The Doughboy Foundation website, “The American Woman Who Reported on Japan’s Entry Into World War I,” Aug. 8, 2023

GEO Magazine [French], photo essay on Eliza Scidmore, October 2020

Sierra Club’s John Muir website, page on Eliza Scidmore, April 3, 2018

National Geographic News Blog (originally published March 26, 2012; updated in 2018)

Viral History Blog, “Eliza Scidmore, the Woman Behind the Planting of Washington’s Cherry Trees in 1912,” March 28, 2012


Washington Independent Review of Books

Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, June 20, 2024

Q&A with Janice P. Nimura, author of Daughters of the Samurai, May 27, 2016

Without You There Is No Us: My Times With the Sons of North Korea’s Elite,  January 1, 2015 

Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar, November 2011 

Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World, August 12, 2011

A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS, May 10, 2011

Ravenous: A Food Lover’s Journey From Obsession to Freedom, March 23, 2011


Online National Geographic News

“In Africa, Decoding the Language of Elephants,” February 21, 2003

“Maya Hieroglyphics Recount ‘Giant War,’ ” October 19, 2002

“Crossbow Rivalry of Two Italian Towns Dates to Middle Ages,” September 6, 2002

“Skull Fossil Opens Window onto Early Human Origins,” July 11, 2002

“City Occupied by Inca Discovered on Andean Peak in Peru,” March 18, 2002

“High-Tech Fishing Is Emptying Deep Seas, Scientists Warn,” February 26, 2002

‘SuperCroc’ Fossil Found in Sahara,” October 25, 2001

“Skeleton of New Dinosaur ‘Titan’ Found in Madagascar,” August 1, 2001

“Tiny Fossil From Early Jurassic Fills New Niche in Mammal Evolution,” May 24, 1001


Other Sample Articles & Essays

“Giant Footprint” Smithsonian.com, January 28, 2008

“Monumental Shift” Smithsonian.com, July 31, 2007

“Remnants of the Past: High-Tech Analyses of Ancient Textiles Yield Clues to Cultures,” Science News, December 11, 2004

“Assault on Autism,” Science News,  November 9, 2004

“Design College’s New Provost Hopes to Contribute to Another Detroit Renaissance” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 6, 2014

“On the Porch,” Washingtonian, August 1, 2009

“Carried Away,” Potomac Review, Fall 2007

“New Signs of Hope in the Struggle for Human Rights: Indonesia,” Ford Foundation Report,  Fall 1998

“Maternal Death Rate Tough to Reduce,” Indonesian Observer, April 12, 1998

“Helping Students Learn Science the Way Science Works,” Science, September 30, 1994

“Medicine and the Humanities,” Humanities  Jan.–Feb. 1992

“The Animal Rights Movement Has Closed Down and Stalled Research,” NIDA Notes,  Spring/Summer 1989

“Community Colleges Exhibit New Spirit of Fund-Raising Aggressiveness,” Trustee Quarterly, Winter 1989

“Nixon’s Ghosts Haunt the Archives,” Common Cause, July/August 1986

“Putting Geography Back on the Map,” The Washington Post, April 20, 1986

“Crossroads (South Africa): In a Rural Settlement, Medical Students Are Learning Both Medicine and the Realities of Politics,” The New Physician, July 8, 1984


Additional Writing

National Geographic Traveler: Washington, D.C.: Lead content writer for updates of 2005, 2007 and 2010 editions

The Jakarta Explorer, 1999: Editorial coordinator and contributing writer and photographer

National Geographic: Wrote all legends for fold-out maps of New York City (September 1990) and Holy Land (December 1989)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): Annual Reports 1994, 1995

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia: Annual Report 1998; CIFOR newsletter, Nos. 19–27, June 1998 to March/April 2001

World Fish Center, Penang, Malaysia: Annual Report 2005/06

(for Oxford University Press, use code AAFLYG6 for 30% discount)