Eutopia Visual Artist Residency, Kavala, Greece, June, 2026.

Xochi Visual Artist Residency, First Place, Ajijic, Mexico, November 2024.

Alternate, Bogliasco Fellowship – Fall, 2024.

MacDowell Fellow, Peterborough, N.H., 2022 (3,000 applicants, 150 chosen).

In Cahoots residency (letterpress), Petaluma, CA. 2020.

2019 ‘Excellence in Journalism’ Award (Society of Professional Journalists) for “Tyrian Purple,” about Mixtec tintoreros

Two-time Yaddo Fellow. Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 2012 and 2019

Villa Lena Writing Fellow (Tuscany). August/September 2016

Two-time National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellow

Runner-Up, Lothian Prize (London-based award for a first biography-in-progress), October, 2010.
First American finalist in the Lothian’s then-11-year history.

Two-time Finalist (top 25 out of 200+ international applicants), Virginia A. Groot Foundation Sculpture Competition, 2007 and 2008.

Language scholarship, Istituto Michelangelo, Florence, Italy, Spring, 2002.

Sentinel: The Extraordinary History of An Iconic, Copper-clad Building. introduction by F. F. Coppola. With original watercolor-and-ink illustrations by the author. American Zoetrope, TBA.

The Man Who Designed the Future: Norman Bel Geddes & the Invention of Twentieth Century America
Melville House, NY/London, 2017. Hardcover, E-book and unabridged Audio (Blackstone), read by the author.
“One of Top Ten Art Books of 2017” - The American Library Association.

A Visit to Mad Geppetto’s Workshop: The Work of B. Alexandra Szerlip
Full-color catalog, with essays for mixed-media sculpture exhibit. San Francisco Center for the Book. November 15, 2013 – February 1, 2014 (extended through May 30, 2014). 2,500 attendees.

The Ugliest Woman in the World and other histories. Gallimaufry Press. (Prose poems.)

Sympathetic Alphabet. Mother’s Hen Press. (Poetry).

Four Young Women: Poems. With Jessica Hagedorn, Alice Karle and Carol Tinker. McGraw-Hill, N.Y. Edited by Kenneth Rexroth.

“Stranger Than Fiction: The Evolution of Spy Tech.” Berfrois, London, (cover story), November, 2021.

“Animal Trials: The Quest for Order in a Chaotic World.” Berfrois (cover story), June, 2021.

Staff Writer, Rabbit Hole (Asia’s answer to The New Yorker):

• “Sleeper Agents” (Female Asian Spies), January, 2021.

• “Shunga: Beyond Edo Porn,“ November, 2020.

• “The Controversial Legacy of Charlie Chan,” June, 2020.
  (Anticipated the anti-Asian response to COVID 19.)

• “The Cutthroat Truffle Industry,“ March, 2020.

• “The Mezcal Invasion,” January, 2020.

• “To Mock the Mighty: A History of Court Jesters,” November, 2019.

• “Melting Palaces,” September, 2019.

• “Sex Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown,” August, 2019.

• “The Subversive History of Japanese Tattoos,” July, 2019.

• “Kitsune: The Japanese Fox Trickster,” May, 2019.

Created “Vintage Tech” column for The Believer Magazine:

• “Invisible Ink,“ June, 2019

• “Tyrian Purple,” April, 2019.

• “21st Century Prehistoric: The Contradictory Dance of Gators & Men,” February, 2019.

• “Learn While You Sleep (Hypnopaedia),” December, 2018.

• “The Ballpoint Pen,” October, 2018.

• “Fortune Cookies: If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it,” July, 2018.

“Doohickey: Vertigo’s Elusive Homage.” Berfrois, London. July, 2014

“Sonata for the Dispossessed: Mexicans in 1930s San Francisco. Berfrois, London. May 22, 2014

“Too Good to Succeed: The Chrysler Airflow.” The Paris Review Daily, July 23, 2013

“Colossal in Scale, Appalling in Complexity.” The Believer Magazine, May 2012.
Subsequently translated into French, published in Le Believer, Paris (Best of The Believer), and nominated for inclusion in Best Essays of 2012.

“Inventing Memories: An Interview with Isabel Allende.” Poets & Writers Magazine (cover story), NYC.

“W.S. Merwin’s Botanical Ark: How the Poet is Raising a Private Rain Forest at His Home on Maui,” This World/San Francisco Chronicle.

“Designing Woman” (profile of Oscar-winning Hollywood costume designer Aggie Rodgers), Image Magazine/San Francisco Examiner.

“My Dinner with Gilberte: Thoughts on Literacy,” This World/San Francisco Chronicle.

Book-length history of Hollywood (through the 1950s). Stephen David Entertainment, NYC (Basis for a television dramatization series), 2017.

Guide to Weekend Getaways: 74 Mini-Vacations Across America. National Geographic Society, 2002.

Atlas of Natural America, National Geographic Society, 2000; researched/wrote two sections (13 segments covering 27 sites), or one-third of the book.

Green Guide to the Pacific Northwest. Michelin Travel Publications, Greenville, S.C., 2000.

Guide to Small Town Escapes. National Geographic Society, 2000.

Miami & The Keys. National Geographic Society, 1999.

Series Editor, Passports to the World, responsible for the creation of 25 books on 25 countries; books subsequently translated into six languages. World Trade Press (San Rafael, CA).

Copy editor, King Bongo: A Novel of Havana by Thomas Sanchez, Knopf. N.Y., 2004.

Copy editor, Sex, Time & Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution by Leonard Shlain, Viking, N.Y., 2003. National Bestseller.

Copy Editor, The Alphabet Versus The Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain. Viking, N.Y., 1998. National Bestseller.

Featured Speaker, IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America)
Annual Conference, Chicago, August 2013.
“I.D.’s Original Enfant Terrible: Why Steve Jobs, Philippe Starck and Others Owe a Debt to a Midwestern 9th-Grade Dropout.”
Spoke before international audience of 1,000 design professionals and university instructors.

Production Manager, Where the Heart Roams, multi-award-winning documentary film about the Romance Novel industry. George Csicsery, director. (Aired on PBS USA, PBS Australia, and screened at various international film festivals)