Brian Gresko

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was heading off on a family vacation when the first sentence of 100 Years of Solitude hit him. He turned the car around and returned home to write. F. Scott Fitzgerald based the character of Jay Gatsby on a friend from Long Island, though he added details...

Word had gotten out about the opening of Social Media at The Pace Gallery in Chelsea -- not surprising, given the show's title.

The large, factory-like space thronged with people interested in the art, and those attracted by the hubbub and bevy of food trucks parked out front....

In between programs, PBS Kids airs public service announcements aimed at parents, but my son loves watching these commercials more than many of the cartoons. He enjoys seeing the little kids with their mommies and daddies. At times throughout the day he points at the television. "Babies," he says, his...

Perhaps it's my writerly instincts, but I'm always on the lookout for connections and metaphors. Someday I hope to uncover a grand theory that unifies all of my life's pursuits, but for now, I'm content finding a few parallels between being a writer and a stay-at-home dad.

Communicate With Precision

To say that Karen Russell's star has been on the rise is to understate her phenomenal entry into the literary world. Russell made it onto New York Magazine's list of people to watch under the age of 25 while still in Columbia's MFA program and prior to releasing her acclaimed...

I've never been much of a resolutions kind of guy, but with my toddler's rapidly changing set of skills, life moves fast. This year, I'm taking advantage of the tradition to pause and reboot. In no particular order, my parenting goals for 2011 are:

• Take time to recharge.

When I...

The Gresko Family Christmas would begin before Thanksgiving. My mom would take down the calendar and, starting with Black Friday, when we ogled the lights, Victorian decorations and multi-tiered poinsettia towers of Longwood Gardens, and ending with our many-coursed New Year's Eve smorgasbord, she'd pencil in more than a month...

Ms. Black, don't think that you're blazing any trails here. In 2002, to much less fanfare, I also left Hearst Corporation for a job at the New York City Department of Education.

At Hearst, I produced websites for several magazines. I was the hub connecting a staff of designers...

I've been working on my second novel for almost a year now, and have two hundred pages to show for it. My first attempt took almost twice as long and didn't make it half this far.

Those two hundred pages are solid enough for an early draft, but by no...

Childhood is under attack by the very people who should be protecting it: parents.

Two recent articles in the New York Times present dispatches from the front lines of the assault:

1) The article "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children" reports that publishers are releasing fewer...

As a kid, family vacations meant only one thing: Cape May, New Jersey. Friends visited different shore points each summer, or might go to the mountains, and my lucky (and wealthy) best bud actually went to Europe every year. I couldn't get my mind around that. When he came home...

My 15-month-old son Mr. F has taken to touching kids' hair as a way of saying hello. Often these soft caresses morph into rough grabs, and then there I am, pulling my well-intentioned and slightly confused son off, apologizing like mad to the other kid's parent. Some say, "Don't apologize--it's...

A recent article in The New York Times shows that while the feminist movement has made significant gains for women in the workplace, mothers are still punished for taking time off and being unavailable to work the long hours of their male or childless female counterparts. The Times...

My son's got a temper.

He gets it from his mother. My wife has been known to drop-kick a duffel bag across the kitchen in frustration, or storm out of the house in the middle of an argument for a long walk to who knows where. But these eruptions come...

Some wonder if their boss appreciates them, but me, I know. My 13-month-old son, Mr. F, greets many mornings with a joyous cry of "da-da!" When I enter his room I discover him standing in the crib, his face lit with an adoring smile. "Da-da," he says again, this time...

I used to dread when people asked what I did for a living.

"Oh, I'm a writer, and also, ahem... a stay-at-home dad."

"What do you write?"

"Well ... I guess I'm mostly a stay-at-home dad."

Usually, after an awkward moment of silence, I would change the subject to get...

I've never been a team player. I would rather run and do yoga -- both solitary, meditative pursuits. My preferred way of watching a movie is at a matinee, alone. And I have no qualms about sidling up to the bar with a magazine for a pint or two. When...