Nonfiction

Writing

Unpublished journal entries

My Screenshots

In search of lost memes

The Birthday Party No One Wants

Why Americans aren't celebrating the semiquincentennial

The End of Books

What happened when a dumpster arrived behind my university's library

Reading the Declaration of Independence as Holy Text

How the American creed emerged—and evolved—over 250 years

Toni Morrison’s Native Figures

A new reading of race in her novels

Browse

Nonfiction

The Hall-Mills Murder Trial, 1926

A consideration of death
April 1, 2019

“The Lonely Hearts Killer,” 1957-1958

Notes on a killing
March 18, 2019

How After the Quake You Returned to What Was Lost

A brief moment
March 11, 2019

The “American Tragedy” Murder, 1906

Notes on a killing
March 4, 2019

Ode to my Father’s Boots

On aging
February 28, 2019

The “Sausage Vat Murder,” 1897

Notes on a killing
February 18, 2019

Philip Roth, Landlord

A literary rentier
February 4, 2019

What Is An Emergency?

On the southern border
January 14, 2019
Books

“They Don’t Know It, but We’re Integrated”

Thomas Pynchon’s “The Secret Integration” and The Saturday Evening Post
January 1, 2019

Natural and Spiritual Freedom

January 1, 2019