I’m an independent writer based in Brooklyn, New York. I specialize in finding and telling complex stories that challenge conventional notions about people and their motivations. I'm currently working on a book project, a narrative history of a philanthropic experiment from the 1960s to integrate the elite boarding schools of the South, to be published by Little, Brown. And I’m working on a screenplay using that material.

During more than 20 years working as a journalist, I’ve uncovered injustices, covered courts, cops and social services, profiled citizens improving their communities and artists making them more beautiful. I’ve knocked on doors and talked to strangers about their lives, listened to personal stories of triumph and loss. My reporting helped free an innocent man from prison and at its best is immersive, taking readers into worlds they would not otherwise encounter. I care as much about form – structure, language, style – as about the drama and ideas that the form frames.

I got my start in journalism in alternative newsweeklies, as a writing fellow at the Houston Press and a staff writer at INDYWeek in Durham, North Carolina. A lot of my writing sensibilities are still shaped by those formative years—I’m drawn to deeply researched and reported stories that are off the news. In 2007, I joined ProPublica, the investigative newsroom, as a staff reporter, and worked there for three years, honing my investigative skills. I worked for The New York Times after that, for the metropolitan section, working my way into the hidden corners of New York City. I left daily journalism in 2016 to return to working on longform, narrative stories, now as a freelancer. 

In my most recent project, I was the host and co-writer of RADICAL, an 8-part podcast series, which explores the life and murder conviction of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, the fiery Black Power leader turned Muslim cleric known for his bold calls for armed resistance to racial violence. When he was arrested in 2000 for shooting one sheriff's deputy and killing another, he claimed he was innocent and framed by the FBI. The show investigates what really happened.

My work has won numerous local and national awards, and has been supported by grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York Public Library, New America, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship, and MacDowell. 

When I’m not writing or thinking about writing, I'm probably cooking for my family or getting a little exercise. If I had more time, I’d practice piano. If I had even more time, I’d go to the woods. I grew up in Atlanta and graduated from Harvard College.

"This is the strain of journalism that elevates the profession: crusading and authoritative, passionate and clearly told."

-Casey Medal Award citation, 2008