He seems rather meek for a contract murderer, but what do I know — he is the first one I’ve ever met.

But now, in bed, it was too warm to assume the proper posture of grief.

You’d be surprised how little freshmen question things if you great them with a confident “Privet!”

Notes from nine months in Moscow, teaching creative writing to people transitioning to life after prison, and people in a homeless shelter called Noah’s Home of Industriousness.