ron's profile
In both fiction and non-fiction, I focus on place and its effects--both physical and psychological--on the people who inhabit particular sites. These explorations range from my living and working with the Marshalese in Micronesia and my restoration of a wrecked former fraternity house in Baltimore.
My novel, Missile Paradise, examines the American presence in the mid-Pacific island nation of the Marshall Islands, where the U.S. Army has established an anti-ballistic missile test site. My narrative pursues several characters, American and Marshallese, as they negotiate their differences and misunderstandings in the twenty-first century mishmash of American dreaming, global capitalism, and personal survival. Wrote Joseph O'Neill: "A moving, ethnologically brilliant tale of imperialism and insularity, this is one of those rare novels that actually opens our eyes." The American Library Association named it a "notable book" of 2017. See "Boom, Like That' in my for an example.
In my story collection, Far West, I explore the themes of “frontier” and American ambition, especially as framed by the now mythical American dream. All of the stories take place in the West, where I have spent a good portion of my life. See "Winnemuca" in my portfolio for an example. This collection won the 2020 Elixir Press literary prize.
My memoir, From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story, chronicles how I and my then-girlfriend (now wife) bought a nearly-condemned former fraternity house (in Charles Village) and brought it back to its Victorian glory. We knew nothing about renovation or restoration when we started. By the time we were done, we'd learned a lot about how buildings stand up and survive the tests of time and, too, how marriages might themselves stand the tests of time.
