Recent
America’s Ancestry Craze, on what we’re seeking when we search for our ancestors, for Harper’s
A Doubter in the Holy Land, on visiting Jerusalem and fearing a conversion like the one my mother once had, for the New York Times Magazine
Oy Vey, Christian Soldiers, on evangelicals’ Bar Mitzvahs, for the New York Times Magazine
Review of Nick Bilton’s Hatching Twitter, a history of the tweet and its creators, for the technology issue of the New York Times Book Review.
Cleaning Up on Christmas, on spending the holiday alone at my father’s place while visiting him, at Medium
Nobody’s Stranger, a Miami noir love story (Part One and Part Two), at Medium
Are You Trapped in a Muriel Spark Novel?, a list of clues, for The Toast
Joan Didion, profiled for Humanities (more)
My teeny NYT One-Page Magazine columns, in the New York Times Magazine
···
Perennials
When the Flock Changed, novel-in-progress excerpt and Narrative Prize winner
The Rapture Meets My 40th Birthday, essay at Awl
Remembering Harry Crews, my former teacher, at Awl, and making his fried rattlesnake for the New York Times Magazine
Portrait of My Father, a recollection at Granta
Regarding the Insurance Defense Attorney, short story in Eyeshot and winner of the 2004 Irwin and Alice Stark Short Fiction Award
Conversations You Have at Twenty, essay, anthologized in Love is a Four-Letter Word, winner Second Prize, 2008 Narrative Love Story Contest, shortlisted in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009
My Son Went to Heaven, and All I Got Was a No. 1 Best Seller, essay on Heaven is for Real, fundamentalism, and near-death experiences, for the New York Times Magazine
Ode to an Enchanted Hotel: My rendezvous with the haunted Biltmore, for Oxford American
···
Essays, Opinions, and Interviews
On the Sunshine State and T.D. Allman’s scathing history of it, for Bookforum (print only)
Better Boundaries with Muriel Spark, at Awl
Another Thing to Sort of Pin on David Foster Wallace, for the New York Times Magazine
Some Company For Slow Writers, at Tin House
For Vassar or for Poorer, on the timelessness of Mary McCarthy’s The Group, for Bookforum
Doubt: A Syllabus, at Bookforum
Alison Bechdel: The Balancing Act, interview at Barnes & Noble Review
A Novel, Not a Memoir, essay (clarified here) at the LA Times
On Joan Didion’s Blue Nights, at Barnes & Noble Review
What Would Jesus Buy?, at Bookforum
Local Twitter Slang, And All That Jawn, at Awl
On Molly Crabapple’s “Altarpieces to the Revolution,” at The New Republic
Wave of the Future, my conversation with Chang Rae Lee about his latest novel, On Such a Full Sea, for Barnes & Noble Review
Conflict, from Warzones to Brownstones, a talk with Masha Hamilton for The Rumpus
Mess Up Your Mind, anthologized (print only) in What My Mother Gave Me
On the unparalleled Muriel Spark, at Barnes & Noble Review
When Your Shrink Dies: A Talk with Emma Forrest about Your Voice in My Head, at Awl
A Talk with Philip Connors about Fire Season, at The Paris Review Daily
Sarah Palin’s Planet Earth and the End Times and Legs, Scenery, and Amens, at Awl
Mat Johnson’s Pym: my choice for the 2012 Pulitzer, in the New York Times Magazine
After the Affair: On Jean Rhys and Ford Maddox Ford, correspondence with Alexander Chee at Granta
···
Miscellany
Football and Nachos, the Texan Way, at Awl
Dear Abby, When I Was a Young Man, my (mortifying teenage) Tender is the Night fan fiction, at Awl
Culture Diary for the Paris Review Daily (part 2)
···
Selected Older Fiction and Essays
Luke, fiction in storySouth, published 2002
Wartime in Williamsburg, essay in Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, published 2003
Post-Extraction, fiction in Swink, published 2004
Send Up the Clowns, in The American Prospect, published 2006
Confessions of a Cradle Robber, essay in When I Was a Loser, published 2007
···
Selected Reviews and Appreciations
Appreciation of Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers, at NPR, and other contributions to NPR’s Books We Like
Review of Adam Levin’s The Instructions, at Barnes & Noble Review
Review of A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book, at Barnes & Noble Review
Review of Blake Bailey’s Cheever: A Life, at Barnes & Noble Review
Review of Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs, at Barnes & Noble Review
Review of Claire Keegan’s Walk the Blue Fields, in The New York Times Book Review
Review of C.E. Morgan’s All the Living, at The Second Pass
Review of Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader, in the LA Times Book Review
Review of Lilian Pizzichini’s The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys, at The Second Pass
Review of Richard Price’s Lush Life, in the Boston Globe
Review of Aleksandar Hemon’s The Lazarus Project, in The Boston Globe
Review of Cate Kennedy’s Dark Roots, in the New York Times Book Review
Review of Ellen Litman’s The Last Chicken in America, in the NY Times Book Review
···