Writings: Nonfiction

I frequently write about books, music, food, and history.

Books

• “The Anarchist Who Shared My Name,” the Oulipo, and Contemporary Nonfiction (Words Without Borders)
• Blumhouse reinvented the horror movie, so why not the horror novel? (Polygon)
• Cosmic Horror at a Crossroads: Revisiting Thomas Ligotti’s “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race” (Cleveland Review of Books)
• Did America Just Elect Baron Munchausen? (Literary Hub)
• Dungeons & Dragons: New Graphic Novel Exposes Heart of Geek Game Culture (Rolling Stone)
• Empathy Exams: On Fictionalizing Extremists (Literary Hub)
• “Everything is Horrible and We’re All Going to Die”: Mat Johnson and Samuel Sattin on Writing Comics, Novels and the Apocalypse (Paste)
• From Canada: A Highbrow Book About Talking Dogs (OZY)
• From Zine Racks to Hell Sites and Back Again (News-to-Table)
• Gabrielle Bell on Ego, Animals and Her Intimate New Graphic Novel, Everything Is Flammable (Paste)
• Gary Shteyngart’s Empathy Experiment (The New Republic)
• How Electric Dreams Compares to Philip K. Dick’s Short Stories (Vulture)
• An Indifferent Hunter: Stories Of Geography Gone Mad (The Quietus)
• In Praise of Joy Williams’s Tarnished Novel, ‘The Changeling’ (Chicago Review of Books)
• In ‘Elevation,’ the latest from Stephen King, the run-of-the-mill co-exists with the paranormal (Portland Press Herald)
• Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel on “The Gurugu Pledge” and Diversity in the Narrative Voice (Words Without Borders)
• Kafka in Lagos and Other Nigerian Fantasies (OZY)
• The Many Legacies of Harlan Ellison (Vulture)
• Northampton and Beyond the Infinite (Electric Literature)
• Polymathic Spree (Hazlitt)
• Post Pulp Spaces: On Laird Hunt (Los Angeles Review of Books)
• Review: ‘Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life,’ by Jenny Boully (StarTribune)
• Review: The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt (Bookforum)
• Scott McClanahan, Appalachian Literary Outsider, on His Harrowing Divorce Book (Rolling Stone)
• The Strange Case of Sequels and Genre (Tor.com)
• The Surreal Life (The Paris Review)
• Teju Cole: The Book That Changed My Life (Men’s Journal)
• Twenty-Eight Authors on the Books That Changed Their Lives (Vulture)
• The Unadorned Appeal Of Ambiguous Crimes (Mystery Tribune)
• ‘A Way to Overwrite the Ableist Narrative’: An Interview with Nicola Griffith (Hazlitt)
• Why Do Horror Stories Resonate So Deeply Right Now? (Literary Hub)
• Why Doesn’t America Love the Novella? (Electric Literature)

Food & Drink

• Bread and Beer: The Saga of Kvass in the 21st Century (October)
• The Craft of Making Beer Tap Handles (Men’s Journal)
• How Writer Warren Ellis Does Breakfast (Extra Crispy)
• Lookbook: Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez | Head Bartender, Ghost Donkey (Punch)
• The Rise of the Beer Tattoo (Men’s Journal)
• The Rise of West Coast Whiskey (Men’s Journal)
• Soccer’s Supporters Start Shifting the Suds (October)
• Ten Beers Inspired by Books (Electric Literature)
• The Ubiquity of a Pint: Are Grocery Stores the New Beer Bars? (October)
• Whiskey Gets Weird: Six Experimental Bottles That Work (Men’s Journal)

History & Travel

• Anti-Fascist Protests Have Left Major League Soccer at a Crossroads (InsideHook)
• Call of the Mild (Hazlitt)
• Fighting Through the Alaskan Boxing Underground (InsideHook)
• Geek Road Trip: Nj’s War Of The Worlds Museum (And Coffeehouse) For The Alien Invasion That Never Was (SYFY Wire)
• How Fishs Eddy has survived in NYC’s shifting retail landscape (Curbed)
• No Hippies Here: The Competitive Early Days of Ultimate Frisbee (Men’s Journal)
• Uncovering the ghosts of Roosevelt Island (Curbed)
• A View of the Sky: On James Turrell and Atmospheric Isolation (drDOCTOR)
• What Does a Failed New Jersey Utopia Have to Do with the Algonquin Round Table? (Atlas Obscura)
• What a Hundred-Year-Old Department Store Can Tell Us About the Overlap of Retail, Religion and Politics (Smithsonian)

Music

• Brain Tentacles Premiere ‘Fruitcake’ Video, Talk Top Venues (CLRVYNT)
• Cro-Mags, Misfits, Dropkick Murphys and the New Era of Sports Stadium Anthems (Rolling Stone)
• The Doughnut Shop That Runs a Record Label (Extra Crispy)
• Earth’s Dylan Carlson And The Bug’s Kevin Martin On Collaboration, Los Angeles And Experimentation (CLRVYNT)
• How to Create the Underground in Times of Surveillance: On Tim Mohr’s East German Punk History, Burning Down the Haus (Pitchfork)
• Inside Titus Andronicus’ Triple-Album Punk Depression Opera (Rolling Stone)
• It’s the New (Old) Thing: When Post-Punk and Literature Meet (Hazlitt)
• Keith Morris: The Books That Changed My Life (Men’s Journal)
• Nocturnal Habits and the Return of Unwound’s Justin Trosper (CLRVYNT)
• NYC Comes Alive on Evan Caminiti’s ‘Toxic City Music’ (CLRVYNT)
• Shopping is Fueled by Club-Mate and IPAs (October)
• Straight to Hellmouth: When Punk and Magic Meet (Hazlitt)
• Van Morrison, Unlikeliest of Literary Muses (Literary Hub)
• Why Has Ursula K. Le Guin Inspired So Many Musicians? (Electric Literature)