Podcast: I Come as a Thief (on the 6-Minute Stories Podcast)
When the bell rang on a Friday afternoon, I ran to my locker to meet Eryn. The only thing standing between us and a slumber party with girlfriends was a quick trip to procure snacks….
Humor: My Superfood Cupcake Business Ruined My Life And Drained My Bank Account And The Same Fate Is Available To You Today
Hi there, farmers’ market shopper! Feeling sluggish today? Come alive with a $14 superfood cupcake! It’ll change your life just like it changed mine. For example, if I don’t sell all of my cupcakes —…
Essay: Barely Visible
Since my mom died after my second wedding, I don’t have anyone to tell me if my mustache is showing. * When I was ten, Mom walked past the bathroom where I sat on the…
Articles: How To Kiss Someone Like You Mean It
Kissing is a form of communication—a body language if you will—but how to kiss someone, even if you’ve been making out for years, isn’t always clear. (Not to mention the fact that the last couple…
Podcast: No Laughing Matter (on the 6-Minute Stories Podcast)
The night before my mom’s funeral, I sat in my dad’s office, once my childhood bedroom, and tried to write a eulogy.
Essay: My Therapist Says I’m Apologizing Wrong
I stood at the sink and glared at my husband, Paul, who traipsed through the kitchen in his shoes. Again. “I forgot my phone,” he said, creeping back out on tiptoe as if to deposit…
Humor: I Opened This Neighborhood Florist Shop Because I’m Thirsty for Power and You, My Employees, Better Be, Too
Listen up, ladies. Our name isn’t Barb’s Best Blossoms because we’re running a charity here. Do we arrange FRESH CUT GERBERA DAISY BOUQUETS with little cards on picks that say “Thinking of You” to make…
Profile: The Home Edit: Charlotte Edition
Brave Broth founder Joanna Reule and Simplicity Organizers owner Laurie Martin team up to replace clutter and chaos with clean and calm
Humor: Literary Quotations, Revised to Explain the Very Good Decision to Take a Pandemic RV Trip
Herman Melville — Moby Dick “Call me Crazy. Some weeks ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no appetite for air travel, and nothing particular to interest me or my family in quarantine, I thought we should…
Humor: Realistically Renewed Vows, Four Years After Our Wedding
It is with sincere ambivalence that I re-pledge my love and commitment to you today, four contiguous years after we first said: “I do.” You’re my best friend, confidant, and person who takes out the…
Humor: Dorothy Parker Explains Remote Kindergarten
The best way to keep the children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant, and let the air out of the bike tires. Not that they had anywhere to go.
Humor: Nine Mindfulness Practices to Help You Endure Virtual Summer Camp
Summer camp for kids is cancelled. In lieu of a refund, you agreed to a week of virtual camp: one 67-pound box of glue crafts, 15 Zoom check-ins, and countless chances to lose your shit…
Humor: Everything I’m Afraid Might Happen If I Unmute Myself To Speak During A Large Class On Zoom
I’ll forget what I was going to say. I’ll forget what I was going to say and everyone will be annoyed and roll their eyes and mouth “COME ON, YO.” I will start speaking just…
Essay: I Planned To Take A Psychedelic Trip To Battle My Anxiety
I showed up at my therapist’s office in January pulsing with big news. Normally, I’d take my time settling in, checking my phone one last time for texts from my children’s teachers and making small…
Essay: Knotted Ribbon
Shortly after my husband and I moved to Charlotte from Chicago, I made a trip back to Illinois to help my dad go through my mom’s things. In the basement, I found a bag of…
Humor: Password Recovery Questions for Women Who Kept their Names after Marriage
Name the street where you grew up with parents who modeled independence. Which childhood friend uses your husband’s last name to address holiday cards to you because she “values family unity?” On the bathrobe you…
Essay: In her last days, my mother built a bridge to the grandchild she’d never meet
My mom was a master gardener. When she saw a stranger with hedge trimmers in her berm of swaying lilies and perky cone flowers, she had reason to worry. She stared at me with her…
Humor: I’m Ready For My Slightly Overdue Bikini Wax In Your Salon
Hey! Hi. You don’t remember me? Well, it’s been a little while since my last wax. Yes, it has been over a year. Okay, two. That’s not normal? No, no, I didn’t know that most…
Humor: How to Talk to a New Mom
If You Are Her Partner Be casual. Ignore how she’s deep lunging around the coffee table and crying louder than the baby. Ask how her day went. When she stares back at you in Tuesday’s…
Humor: Daily Itinerary of the Two-Week Old Green Eggplant in My Refrigerator
6:00: Wake up when the refrigerator door opens. Light! It’s been fourteen days since The Woman spotted me in the produce section and said, as she lifted and turned me in her hand, “Hmm, maybe.”…
Humor: Seven Mishaps at Whole Foods That, Looking Back, Were Only Partially My Fault
My sincere apologies for the way I reprimanded my children for running their kiddie carts into my heels. I didn’t mean to beat my chest and roar, causing that woman to jerk the wheel of…
Essay: A Simple Observation
To me, the core beauty of the Italian language is not its sing-song cadence, the way it waltzes around leaving ears feeling caressed and fulfilled, the way it takes a sentence in English and makes…
Humor: I Am the Middle-Aged Jumper at the Trampoline Park Who’s Definitely Not Too Old for This
It’s toddler hour at the trampoline park, and this place is jumping. The hordes of small, very limber, and slightly intimidating people in rompers and athletic shorts bouncing on an endless grid of trampolines are…
Humor: Mindfulness Hack: How To Use 4th of July Consumer Explosives to Augment Your Meditation Practice
Ignite Your Senses: Notice anything you can smell. Sulfur gas from the explosions? Maybe some smoke. Or fear. What can you hear? Not much? Give your Noise-Induced Hearing Loss a few days to wear off….
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ESSAYS
How to Feel Less Depleted by the End of the Workweek (SELF Magazine, 2022)
How to Use Tech to Foster Intimacy (SELF Magazine, 2022)
How to Get Mental Health Support - On Social Media (Wired, 2022)
This Protein Bar Literally Tastes Like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Bon Appetit, 2021)
Tetris Helps My Stress and Anxiety Fall Away (Wired Magazine, 2021)
Learning to Love Again (Unity Magazine, in print, 2021)
Tiny Love Story: Three Seasons in a Shared Bed (The New York Times, scroll all the way down the page, 2021)
The quiet shame of parenting with a fear of vomiting (Washington Post, 2021)
Barely Visible (HaveHasHad, 2021)
My Daughter Convinced Me to Host a Backyard "Restaurant" in the Middle of a Pandemic (Good Housekeeping, in print and online 2021)
What to Do if a Young Child Expresses Dark Thoughts (The New York Times, 2021)
My Therapist Says I'm Apologizing Wrong (Elemental, 2021)
Rekindling a Tortellini Tradition with My Dad (Unity Magazine, in print, 2021)
In her last days, my mother built a bridge to the grandchild she'd never meet (Washington Post, 2020)
Key Ring Chronicles: Knotted Ribbon (McSweeney's Internet Tendency, 2020)
I Planned to Take a Psychedelic Trip to Battle My Anxiety (Huffington Post, 2020)
A Simple Observation (on Italian Language and Living) (Ovunque Siamo, 2019)
ARTICLES
How to Feel Like You Have More Free Time Even If You Don't (SELF Magazine, 2022)
Interview with Elissa Bassist: Dismantling the Patriarchy by Reclaiming Her Voice (Creative Nonfiction, 2022)
Talking to Kids About Food Waste (National Geographic, 2022)
How to Make Your Days Off Feel Like a True Break (SELF Magazine, 2022)
Why Bicycling Might Keep Your Kid's Mental Health in High Gear (National Geographic, 2022)
How to Kiss Someone Like You Mean It (SELF Magazine, 2022)
Is It Time for a Digital Detox? (Charlotte Magazine, 2022)
HUMOR
Dorothy Parker Explains Remote Kindergarten (McSweeney's Internet Tendency, 2020)
I am a Mom Who Hates Adventure, and I Have a Bone to Pick with You, My Zipline Tour Guide (The Belladonna, 2022)
Password Recovery Questions for Women Who Kept Their Names After Marriage (The Belladonna, 2020)
I Opened this Neighborhood Florist Shop Because I'm Thirsty for Power, and You, My Employees, Better Be, Too (Points in Case, 2021)
My Superfood Cupcake Business Ruined My Life And Drained My Bank Account And The Same Fate Is Available To You Today (Slackjaw, 2021)
I'm Ready for My Slightly Overdue Bikini Wax in Your Salon (The Belladonna, 2020)
Realistically Renewed Vows, Four Years After Our Wedding (Slackjaw, 2020)
Everything I'm Afraid Might Happen if I Unmute Myself to Speak on Zoom (Slackjaw, 2020)
Literary Quotations, Revised to Explain My Very Good Decision to Take a Pandemic RV Trip (Weekly Humorist, 2020)
Nine Mindfulness Practices to Help You Endure Virtual Summer Camp (Points in Case, 2020)
How to Talk to a New Mom (Slackjaw, 2020)
Seven Mishaps at Whole Foods that, Looking Back, Were Only Partially My Fault (Points in Case, 2019)
I Am the Middle-Aged Jumper at the Trampoline Park Who's Definitely Not Too Old for This (Points in Case, 2019)
Mindfulness Hack: How to Use 4th of July Consumer Explosives to Augment Your Meditation Practice (Little Old Lady Comedy, 2019)
Daily Itinerary of the Two-Week Old Green Eggplant in My Refrigerator (The Belladonna, 2019)
CRAFT ESSAYS
How Humor and Essays Became Timeshare Partners in My Brain (Brevity Magazine blog, 2022)
It's Nothing Personal: How Essays Make Secrets Seem Silly (Brevity Magazine blog, 2021)
PROFILES
Becky Santoro of Foster Village (Charlotte Magazine, in print, 2022)
Lynne Daley of Bank of America (Charlotte Magazine, in print, 2021)
Home Edit: Charlotte Edition (Charlotte Parent Magazine, 2021)
OTHER FUN THINGS
No Laughing Matter (6-Minute Stories podcast, a reading of my essay from the Luck and Opportunity print anthology, 2021)
I Come as a Thief (6-Minute Stories podcast, a reading of my essay from the Trouble print anthology, 2021)
Emetophobia Help podcast S2E6- I was interviewed about the story I wrote in the Washington Post (2021)
Judge's comments halfway down the page on my contest-winning essay, Queen of Birthdays (2020)
New York Times Parenting published my "Tiny Victory" in their January 30, 2021 newsletter: "I used to get mad when my 3-year-old dumped out soap in the shower; but now I buy the cheap liquid stuff on Amazon, refill old pump-top bottles, and let her go to town. She gets clean, and I get 20 minutes. — Nikki Campo, Charlotte, N.C."
My essay is featured on Good Housekeeping's freelance pitch guidelines web page
Two of my stories were featured on award-winning journalist Amy Paturel's website as examples of how to build character in essays
Chicken Soup for the Soul has published two of my stories, in this book (Nov 2021) and this book Feb 2022)