Archive - The Second Swim

Hawkesbury River Loving

Give me a boat that will carry two, And both shall row, my love and I. The water is wide. As I perch in the bow of the our little outboard motor boat—a…

Mar 8 •

November 2023

The Women of 7 October

I can’t stop thinking about them: the women and girls of the Israeli kibbutzim, who were raped on 7 October, less than 8 weeks ago. Raped so brutally…

Nov 18, 2023 •

September 2023

The Disappearing Act

A Fictional Sketch with Commentary

Sep 26, 2023 •

Separating the Art from the Artist

This piece first appeared in Quillette, where I am an associate editor. You can read the original here. Two sisters, with whom I am closely connected…

Sep 20, 2023 •

A Tango-Themed Fiction

Sep 6, 2023 •

August 2023

I’ve always been an extreme physical coward. Downhill skiing and bungee jumping are not for me—in fact, I get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach…

Aug 23, 2023 •

July 2023

Why Academics Write So Badly and How That Hurts Them

Jul 26, 2023 •

Jul 5, 2023 •

June 2023

Lovelorn Millers and Interstellar Incels

On Unrequited Passion

Jun 28, 2023 •

Can We Choose What We Believe?

And is it ever good to believe something untrue?

Jun 14, 2023 •

On Casual Anti-White Racism

Let's not do this.

Jun 8, 2023 •

May 2023

Mistress of Bricks

Counterintuitively, my surname, Italia, has nothing to do with the country of Italy. It’s a common Indian Parsi name that probably originated in a…

May 31, 2023 •

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