Publications

"Killjoy Was Here." American Libraries. Oct. 2009 : 47.

 "Work: The Surprising Pleasure of The Annual Social Security Statement."  The Smart Set February, 2009.

"Bummer Books." The Common Review 7.2 (spring 2009): 10-14.

"Game Plans." Sport Literate. 6.1 (winter 2009) 20-28. 

"That Side of Paradise." The Chronicle of Higher Education." 5 Sept. 2008: 10.

Beyond Words: Cultural Texts for Reading and Writing 2nd ed. Chicago : Longman, 2008. (anthology)

"Kids Can't Focus These Days. Then Again, Neither Can I." Washington Post 3 Feb. 2008 (Sunday Outlook) B02. 

"Librarian's Lament: Books are a Hard Sell." Washington Post  21 Jan. 2007: (Sunday Outlook) B02.

"Friendly Dismemberment at the WritersWorkshop." The Common Review  5.3 (winter 2007) : 34-39.

"The Quarterly Reader and Writer." The Antioch Review  65.1 (winter 2007) : 26-34. (Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2008)

"On Not Reading." Baltimore Review  11.1 (winter 2007) : 18-26.

"The 21st Century Dynamo." Library Journal 15 Sept. 2006: 20 42.

"Junk Research and the Internet." The Common Review 4.4 (spring 2006): 22-29.

"Time out for Reading." Ascent (spring 2005) 29.3: 78-91.

"My Distant Education." The New England Review 26.1 (winter 2005) : 163-172. 

"Have You Read My Manuscript?" Post Road 9 (2005) : 83-88.  (Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2005).

"Natural Progression." Chicago Tribune 16 March 2005: (c) : 1-5.

"My High School Library." The Massachusetts Review 45.1 (spring 2004) : 24-36.

"Now They Call it Pre du Chevaux." Notre Dame Magazine (spring 2004) : 93-94.

"Imagining Hemingway in The Deux Magots." Under the Sun 8.1 (summer 2003): 184-194.

"Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" North Dakota Quarterly 70.1 (winter 2003) : 68-74.

"Selling out the English Language Abroad." Tampa Review 24 (spring 2003) : 59-64.

"Sweet Dreams." The Bark 18 (spring 2002) : 82-84.

"The View from Johannes Brahms Platz." Under the Sun  6.1 (summer 2001) : 217-227.

"Smoking the Great Outdoors." Salon. Feb 6, 2001.