Non-fiction, Essays, and Critique
Non-fiction
Articles, Essays, and Critique
- Columns for The Boston Globe
- The tax man cometh, time and time again," April 13, 2009
- "Following Boston's other historic trail," April 20, 2009
- "Restoring our secret gardens," April 27, 2009
- "Judging the Susan Boyles of the world," May 4, 2009
- "What makes good art?", May 11, 2009
- "The nation of the armed," May 18, 2009
- Curiosity's Cats: Writers on Research
- Bruce Joshua Miller, Ed., 2014
- Naming the World
- Writing exercises
- Bret Johnston, Ed., 2008
- The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books
- Essay
- Peder Zane, Ed., 2007
- The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them
- Essay
- Roxanne Coady and Joy Johannessen, Eds., 2006
- Now Write!
- Essay/Writing Exercise
- Sherry Ellis, Ed., 2006
- "Mrs. Turpin Reads the Stars"
- Cincinnati Review
- Spring 2007
- "The Longest Hour"
- Death by Pad Thai
- Douglas Bauer, Ed., 2006
- "The Most Scottish Book I Ever Read"
- Remarkable Reads
- Peder Zane, Ed., 2004
- "The Third Servant"
- Five Points Magazine, 1998
- Also included in The Business of Memory, Charles Baxter, Ed., 1999
- "The Hidden Machinery"
- The Eleventh Draft
- Frank Conroy, Ed., 1999
- "A Love Match"
- A Few Thousand Words About Love
- Mickey Pearlman, Ed., 1998
- "Glenalmond"
- Five Points Magazine, 1997
- Reprinted in Utne Reader
- "Diogenes at the Theatre, or the Teacher's Lament"
- AWP Chronicle
- February, 1996
- "Writing Eva"
- I've Always Wanted to Tell You: Letters to Our Mothers
- Connie Warloe, Ed., 1997
- "The Double Life of Robert Louis Stevenson"
- The Atlantic Monthly, 1994
- "The Valley of Lost Things"
- Between Friends
- Mickey Pearlman, Ed., 1994
- "How to Tell a True Story"
- AWP Chronicle, 1993
- Reprinted in The Best Writing on Writing, Story Press, 1994;
- Bringing the Devil to His Knees, 1999
Additional contributions
- The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot (Introduction). Random House, 2001.
- Kidnapped: or, The Lad with the Silver Button, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Introduction). Modern Library, 2001.
- The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg (Introduction). NYRB Classics, 2002.
- Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, Constance Fenimore Woolson, Ed. (Introduction). University of Michigan Press, 2004.
- Sudden Rain: A novel, by Maritta Wolff (Introduction). Scribner, 2006.