The Artistic Echo Chamber

I could spend all day just reading new magazine articles about how writers write and still not get to them all.

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Silicon Valley Reads Wrap-Up

I encountered many wonderful reading groups and dedicated citizens, but one encounter in particular has stuck with me, so as I post my final piece about the Silicon Valley Reads program, allow me to close by telling this one more small story.

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An Internalization of Violence

I wrote for The Daily Beast last Sunday. David Frum rebutted. I have responded with more questions than answers, I fear.

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Apophatic Art

Living well in the stunned silence. This is the task of not just theologians, but artists as well, as we are all trying to connect others to something far beyond ourselves

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A New Book, Much Like the Old Book

The Millions says I am supposed to embrace the paperback. They say I am supposed to embrace the new cover. They say I am supposed to embrace a new start. They say great things can happen.

Far be it for me to argue with The Millions, but I'd say great things have already happened, from interviews to speaking opportunities to an opera, after all.

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Among the Icebergs

This past weekend, on a sun-filled Saturday with the bluest skies our year had yet seen, the Niagara River was filled with ice, as if it was draining some northern Quebec tundra and not lakes that shore upon Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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Vet to Vet: An Interview with Thomas Dang

Meet Thomas Dang, an eleven-year Marine Corps Reservist, ceramic artist from Glendale, California, and the subject of the second of my occasional interviews for this "Vet to Vet" series.

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The Iraq War, Ten Years On

I admit that the tenth anniversary snuck up on me. I didn't pre-plan, submit timely pieces to magazines in anticipation, didn't write long essays to explain what this milestone would mean.

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Vet to Vet: An Interview with Ehren Tool

Ehren Tool agreed to do an interview with me; some of it went in the New York Times article, all of it is here.

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Books You Must Read: “White Noise”

The jacket says the book is about a family in the Middle West and an airborne cloud of toxic gas. This is incorrect. The New York Times in their 1985 review said the book is about the "understanding and perception of America's soundtrack." They are also wrong. "White Noise" is as much about noise and chemicals as "Hamlet" is about princes and kingdoms.

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An Opera, if You Can Believe It.

It turns out it's a lot of work to turn a book into an opera. Step 1 of 438 was completed Saturday in my kitchen over coffee and left-over Halloween candy.

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On the [Insert Superlative Here] Experience of Reading Your Own Audiobook

For two blissful days, I dreamed a dream awake. Realization exceeded expectations. I stepped fully and completely outside of any daily routine, any typical habit, and took a plunge in the uncomfortably cold water of pinnacle experience. And I may have even been pretty good at it.

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