Essays, Memoir, and Book Reviews
The American Scholar
A personal essay about the shared backgrounds of my father and author E.L. Doctorow, my mentorship with Doctorow as a grad student, and the bridge between both men.
A.D. Jameson, I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture
The Washington Post Sunday Book World
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (okay, the 1970s), a movie that would change the landscape of American cinema.
Simon Kuper, Impossible City: Paris in the 21st Century
Los Angeles Review of Books
Kuper’s memoir describes a modern Paris leaning forward into the 21st century while still maintaining many of its best traditions.
The American Scholar
A personal essay about the highs and lows, twists and turns, epiphanies and near kerfuffles of riding a bike in New York City.
The American Scholar
A memoir and photographic essay of September 11th, as witnessed from my roof deck and downtown Manhattan, and a reflection on the days and weeks to follow.
Tablet Magazine
A memoir about the distant world of my father’s New York, his tales of my grandfather’s drugstore, and the subways and baseball players of his day.
Revisiting the Deep Sense of Place in Alice Munro’s Debut, 50 Years Later
The Atlantic
Munro’s first book remains faithful to its time period and rural setting, even as her characters resonate strongly with contemporary readers.
Best West Village Parks to Read In
Time Out New York
A descriptive, photographic essay on some lesser-known Village treasures, along with reading suggestions for each.
Clinton Crockett Peters, Pandora’s Garden: Kudzu, Cockroaches, and Other Misfits of Ecology
The Texas Observer
With a storyteller’s voice, Peters regards our complicated relationship to maligned, invasive, and misunderstood species.
Stuart Kells, The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders
Chicago Review of Books
Kells explores the history, intrigue, and human drama of places that have housed books throughout the ages.
Jody Rosen, Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle
Los Angeles Review of Books
Rosen’s book portrays the bicycle as a vital extension of the human body and an enduring object of our imagination.
The World Split Open: Great Authors on How and Why We Write (essay collection)
The Georgia Review
Prominent authors like Marilynne Robinson, Margaret Atwood, and E.L. Doctorow provide anecdotes and philosophical arguments for the enduring role of fiction in a nonliterary age.
Time Out New York
Comic ruination and poignant satire in the author’s first story collection since Birds of America.
Time Out New York
Hua’s quirky short stories read like folk tales in a modern-day setting.
Time Out New York
From the author of Charming Billy, a tender family portrayal that leans on memory and snapshots as much as it does story.
Time Out New York
A comic novel of suburban angst evolves into an intriguing page-turner.
Bill Cheng, Southern Cross the Dog
Time Out New York
In 1927, a great flood ravages Mississippi, and Cheng immerses the reader in Southern history and folklore.
Pleiades
Mailer reflects on his fraught, lifelong relationship to writing and the bewitching but often vexing process of creating words.
Jonathan Franzen, How to Be Alone
Harvard Review
Franzen’s essays confront the challenge of being a writer in a
modern, mass-consumerist society.
Jake Silverstein, Nothing Happened, and Then It Did
Fiction Writers Review
In a quest to find himself and his true craft, this author straddles the porous border between memoir and fiction.
Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer (Random House)
Essay on the important and often overlooked role of descriptive language and setting in fiction.
The Georgia Review
An anthology that manages the difficult balance of preserving traditional
Southern heritage while accommodating modern subject matter.
Skip Horack, The Southern Cross
American Book Review
The luckless, flawed characters in Horack’s story collection seek a
repentance that often eludes them.
Ploughshares
Miller explores the various shapes of longing in this debut story collection.
Richard Russo, The Whore’s Child
Missouri Review
The Pulitzer Prize winner’s first story collection offers a keen eye for characters who suffer from denial, yet who meet, on occasion, with moments of grace.