I’m a writer, editor, fact-checker and storyteller, and I’m here to help.

Journalist
Medill MSJ ’13. I’ve been reporting and writing profiles, enterprise stories and features about creativity and culture since 2015.
Problem-solver
Once a copy chief, always a copy chief. I can fix your story and ensure it’s all in order six ways to Sunday.
Maker
I’m always writing a novel or three. When it’s not prose, it’s comics or music or sculpture or collage. Ask me about my accordion.
Pitch or Honey: Links, essays and more

This Republic of Suffering
Last week, a New York City COVID ICU nurse posted a long, immersive account of what it’s like to do her job. It’s harrowing, beyond belief. It should be not happening. It did not have to happen. COVID-19 does have this in common with all wars.

It ain’t right and it ain’t natural
I last went into Manhattan on March 13. That was my last time on public transit or anywhere more than a mile from my Brooklyn apartment. I haven’t been smelling the tulips because I’ve been worried someone else will have done the same. I can’t let the tulip become a plague vector.

I’m using major chords to make this a sadder song
I’d like to get back into blogging. I think it’s still an important form, and I’m also eager for anything that can keep me focusing during this initial shock of coronavirus isolation. Please excuse the mess, as they say; while I was out, WordPress totally upended the user interface that I’d been very comfortable withContinue reading “I’m using major chords to make this a sadder song”
Esther Bergdahl
Brooklyn-based, Chicago-facing, online always. For hire.
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