Author Photo by Carl Nicolas

“'Hieroglyphics’ held me rapt from its first sentence to its last. With astounding vulnerability and grace, the writer meditates on the intersections of language, love, and loss. That the writer directly addresses his father throughout gave the essay an intense intimacy. The self-awareness breaks through the artifice all while maintaining the essay’s artfulness. I want everyone to read this densely layered and lyrical work.”

-Jeannie Vanasco, author of A Silent Treatment and Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl