I am a Paris-based writer, journalist and critic, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a former Rome Bureau Chief and European Culture correspondent for The New York Times. I am also the incoming Curator of Programs at The American Library in Paris and write regularly for The New York Review of Books. I specialize in textured profiles and features at the intersection of culture and politics but another favorite form is the postcard. I have reported from more than two dozen countries and interviewed heads of state and cultural figures, including four Nobel Laureates in literature. I have also unraveled the mystery of Elena Ferrante’s identity, met two popes, taught journalism at Princeton, interviewed the Zelenskys in wartime Kyiv and directed an artist residency in Italy. I grew up in Vermont and have lived my adult life in New York, Rome and Paris. I spent much of the pandemic on a Greek island and emerged wiser.