Occupation: Writer

on shifting identities and the work that moves us

When I first started writing professionally back in the early aughts, it took a while to get up the gumption to call myself - out loud - “a writer.” I’d only published a few things, after all; I wasn’t making a living from my writing yet. It felt audacious to claim the title, even as it became more and more true.

To ease in, I started putting “writer” in…