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Unpublished journal entries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

Ordinary Allurements

Christina Sharpe’s reading lessons
June 12, 2023

The Consolations of Failure

Two new books look at what failing can—and cannot—teach us
June 12, 2023

This Part of Our Lives Is Over

Sending my daughter to Japan
June 12, 2023

[I had a dream last night]

June 5, 2023

Beyond the Attention Economy

Turning to face our burning world
May 23, 2023

How to Sharpen a Scythe

Is paying attention good in itself?
May 23, 2023

Sublimation and Self-Possession

Bearing witness to life’s weirdness
May 23, 2023

The Saunterers’ Club

In pursuit of a more wayward Thoreau
May 23, 2023

The Winter Zoo

Visiting animals when most humans stay away
May 8, 2023

Monstrous Hybrids and the Conjuring of Legacy

A visit to a namesake scrapyard changes a novelist's sense of inheritance
April 5, 2023