Gallery
“When I turned in an early draft of this essay, my agent . . . asked, 'Where are all those fun details?' She reminded me of how I had told her the story. . . . I resisted making edits at first; I didn't want to write about my personal observations. But as I ruminated, the essay took on a kind of shape in my mind, rounded out by the details I'd suppressed.”– Marie Mutsuki Mockett, of "Letter from a Japanese Crematorium"