Writing

Writings on Ancestry

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 mom once had, for the New York Times Magazine (republished in The Best American Travel Writing 2015)
Review of Alex Wagner’s Futureface, for the New York Times Book Review
Ancestor Trouble newsletter

Perennials

I, Rodent, a year-end essay at Awl
Science, Chance, and Emotion with Real Cosima, a profile of Orphan Black’s science advisor Cosima Herter, for Longreads
When the Flock Changed, winner Narrative Prize for fiction, in Narrative Magazine
Cleaning Up on Christmas , on spending the holiday alone at my father’s place while visiting him, at Medium
Portrait of My Father, a recollection at Granta
The Rapture Meets My 40th Birthday, essay at Awl
Regarding the Insurance Defense Attorney, short story in Eyeshot and winner of the 2004 Irwin and Alice Stark Short Fiction Award
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
Conversations You Have at Twenty , essay anthologized in Love is a Four-Letter Word and published by Narrative

Essays and Opinions

Oy Vey, Christian Soldiers, on evangelicals’ Bar Mitzvahs, for the New York Times Magazine
What Would Jesus Buy?, at Bookforum
Cleaning Up on Christmas, on spending the holiday alone at my father’s place while visiting him, at Medium
Another Thing to Sort of Pin on David Foster Wallace, for the New York Times Magazine
Some Company For Slow Writers, at Tin House

Selected Reviews, Appreciations, Interviews, Profiles and Conversations

Mat Johnson’s Pym: my choice for the 2012 Pulitzer, in the New York Times Magazine
Review of Nick Bilton’s Hatching Twitter , for the technology issue of the New York Times Book Review
Interview with Nicole Chung, author of All You Can Ever Know, for B&N Review
Wave of the Future, my conversation with Chang Rae Lee about On Such a Full Sea, for Barnes & Noble Review
On the Sunshine State and T.D. Allman’s scathing history of it, for Bookforum (print only)
After the Affair: On Jean Rhys and Ford Maddox Ford, correspondence with Alexander Chee at Granta
For Vassar or for Poorer, on the timelessness of Mary McCarthy’s The Group, for Bookforum
Appreciation of Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers, at NPR, and other contributions to NPR’s Books We Like
Alison Bechdel: The Balancing Act, interview at Barnes & Noble Review
On Molly Crabapple’s “Altarpieces to the Revolution,” at The New Republic
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
On Joan Didion’s Blue Nights, at Barnes & Noble Review
Joan Didion , profiled for Humanities
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 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 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
Remembering Harry Crews, my former teacher, at Awl
A Talk with Philip Connors about Fire Season, at The Paris Review Daily

Miscellany

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
A Novel, Not a Memoir, essay (clarified here) at the LA Times
Mess Up Your Mind, anthologized (print only) in What My Mother Gave Me
Nobody’s Stranger, a Miami noir short story (Part One and Part Two), at Medium
Football and Nachos, the Texan Way, at Awl