Essays and Features
Yankee magazine. Art: Joe Kovach
Vincent and His Lady
Vincent was rumpled, his fine gray hair—long, yet thinning—always windblown. He wore a scarf, even in the summertime, as if he were afraid he might catch a cold in his throat. His clothes looked lived-in. You expected that he might smell. But he didn’t. Well—sometimes his hands smelled like fish, but not because he was unclean… (more)
Yankee magazine. Photo: Hornick/Rivlin
A SHED OF ONE’S OWN
Just as the last century turned into this one, I found a tiny cottage in the classified ads. It was only $3,000, but it was also cash-and-carry. I called the number listed, and suffice it to say: Adventure ensued. So much adventure, in fact, that I wrote a book about that cottage-moving year… (more)
Yankee magazine. Photo: Mark Fleming
Almost Spring on Craigville Beach
Walk into the wind. This is the first rule of the winter beach walk. The bitter gusts will sting your cheeks and the salt-infused air might make your nose run (you have tissues, right?). Be sure your hood is snapped tight to the collar of your down coat. You’ll set off, and quickly your walk will become a battle… (more)
MORE SHORT WORK
On Memory, Identity & Hope
Kate remembers her mother’s birthday in “Eating Cake on 9/11“, and muses on our many selves–remembered or forgotten, in Beacon Broadside. In “Why We Play,” an essay in the spring 2020 issue of Multiplicity Magazine, Kate explores music, community, transcendence and belonging.
On the Cape
Kate was thrilled to work with the team of writers and editors at Yankee on “63 Things We Love About Cape Cod and the Islands.” It’s a jam-packed special insert in the May/June 2019 issue of the magazine. And just in time for the winter holidays (arriving sooner than you think): an essay about something special in the neighborhood, appearing in Yankee in the November/December 2020 issue.
ON WRITING & READING
In posts for the writing blog, Beyond the Margins, Kate considers a ghostwriting offer and contemplates her dual career in the book business. You can also read this essay adapted from her 2012 acceptance speech for the New England Book Award in Nonfiction, where Kate recounts her journey from reader to writer.
IN THE MOMENT
Kate’s musings on some specific moments in time, including the monarch butterfly migration, the closing of a tiny Waldenbooks, the passing of Ted Kennedy, and Cape Cod’s own idol, Siobhan Magnus.