Selected Articles, Essays, and Reviews
"The key to a more tranquil mind? One author argues it’s all about revisiting books from the past"
The Washington Post, September 15, 2020.
"Olivia Laing’s ‘Funny Weather’ ponders the role of art during times of crisis"
The Washington Post, May 18, 2020.
"'Invisible Little Worms': Athanasius Kircher’s Study of the Plague"
The Public Domain Review, April 22, 2020.
"In ‘Short Life in a Strange World,’ Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Help an Author Make Sense of His Existence"
The Washington Post, March 11, 2020
"A Look at the Forces — and Tragedies — that Shaped Frank Lloyd Wright"
The Washington Post, October 3, 2019 (a review of Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright, by Paul Hendrickson)
"Harper Lee's Trial By NonFiction"
The Washington Post, May 7, 2019 (a review of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep)
Los Angeles Review of Books, December 16, 2018 (a review of Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly, by Joshua Rivkin)
"Codices, Termites and Floral Notes: The Wondrous Life of ‘The Library’"
The New York Times Book Review, June 1, 2018 (a review of The Library by Stuart Kells)
The New York Times Book Review, January 11, 2015 (a review of Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble, by Marilyn Johnson)
"John Glassie: The TNB Self-Interview"
The Nervous Breakdown, April 10, 2013
"How Literature Saved This Book"
The New Republic, February 12, 2013 (a review of How Literature Saved My Life by David Shields)
The Paris Review Daily, November 9, 2012 (about Father Kircher and my father, Mr. Glassie)
"A Stony Mass of Not Small Size"
The Believer blog, November 8, 2012 (an excerpt from A Man of Misconceptions about Kircher's collaboration with baroque master Gianlorenzo Bernini)
Public Domain Review, November 1, 2012 (an excerpt from A Man of Misconceptions that includes Kircher's descent into the crater of Mount Vesuvius)
"The Professor and The Lieutenant"
The New York Times Magazine, April 8, 2011
The New York Times Magazine blog, March 10, 2011
"Murphy Balcony"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2007
"Lightning Farms"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2007
"Braille Tattoo"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2007
The Believer, December/January 2007 (about a Swiss police officer who photographed car accidents on the roads of Niwalden Canton for 40 years)
"Air-Index Impressionism"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2006
"The Comb That Listens"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2006
"Speed-Reducing Art"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2006
Voodoo Heart: Stories
by Scott Snyder, The Believer, June 2006
The Dead Fish Museum
by Charles D'Ambrosio, The Believer, May 2006
"Did the greatest American artist of the nineteenth century drink too much milk?" The Believer, December 2005/January 2006
"Trust Spray" and "The False-Memory Diet,"
Ideas issue of the New York Times Magazine, December 2005
"The Cosmic Sympathies of Athanasius Kircher"
The Ganzfeld, November 2005
The Train to Lo Wu: Stories
by Jess Row, The Believer, February 2005
Case Histories: A Novel
by Kate Atkinson, The Believer, November 2004
Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World
by Matthew Stewart, The Dallas Morning News, September 2004
Bad Move: A Novel
by Linwood Barclay, The Dallas Morning News, July 2004
Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment: Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind
by James Buchan, The Dallas Morning News, January 2004
“Questions for Irshad Manji”
The New York Times Magazine, December 2003 (author of The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith)
Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books
by Paul Collins, The Dallas Morning News, August 2003
“An Interview with Hunter S. Thompson"
Salon.com & The Toronto Star, February 2003
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science – from the Babylonians to the Mayans
by Dick Teresi, Forbes, December 2002
“Questions For Chuck Palahniuk”
The New York Times Magazine, September 2002 (author of Fight Club and Lullaby)
Edison's Eve: A History of the Quest for Mechanical Life
by Gaby Wood, Forbes, September 2002
“The Man from Neen: A Conversation with Miltos Manetas”
Salon.com, March 2002 (new media artist and founder of the so-called NEEN movement)
Unlimited Media: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives
by Todd Gitlin, Wired Magazine, March 2002
"Life Advice Gleaned from the Bliss Spa Catalog"
McSweeney's, February 2002
“Flesh, Robots and God: A Conversation With Rodney A. Brooks”
Salon.com, February 2002 (Director of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab and author of Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us)
“Oldest Living Surrealist Tells All: A Conversation With Dorothea Tanning”
Salon.com, February 2002 (core member of Surrealist movement, painter, poet, wife of Max Ernst and author of Between Lives: An Artist and Her World)
“A Conversation With Edward O. Wilson”
Salon.com, January 2002 (biologist, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of The Future of Life)
“Questions For Gene Simmons”
The New York Times Magazine, December 2001 (musician, tongue exhibitionist, blood-spewer and author of KISS and Make Up)
The Future of Ideas
by Lawrence Lessig, Wired Magazine, December 2001
Emergence: The Secret Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software
by Steven Johnson, Wired Magazine, October 2001
“Questions For Wallace Shawn”
The New York Times Magazine, August 2001 (actor and playwright)
Intoxicating Minds: How Drugs Work
by Ciaran Regan, Wired Magazine, August 2001
Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remember
by Daniel Schacter, Wired Magazine, June 2001
"Sentences I Wish I Hadn't Written"
McSweeney's, January 2001
“Punditry: Have Doctorate, Will Comment”
The New York Times, August 1999 (about a new “Public Intellectual” Ph.D. program at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton)
"One of the Tricks That Women Have Played on Their Husbands"
Nerve.com, March 1999 (a free adaptation of a tale from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, born 1313, died 1375)
“Questions For Julia Sweeney”
The New York Times Magazine, February 1999 (actress and playwright)
“(Real) Games (Real) People Play”
The New York Times Magazine, January 1999 (about the “Illegal Games” exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art)
“My Elephant Could Paint That”
The New York Times Magazine, November 1998 (about Russian émigré conceptual artists Komar and Melamid)
Filth: A Novel
by Irvine Welsh, Swing Magazine, October 1998
W.W. Norton
“No Chickens Will be Harmed"
The New York Times Magazine, August 1998 (about The Fringe Theater Festival in New York)
“Frank Lloyd Riders"
The New York Times Magazine, June 1998 (about the motorcycle exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum)
“Tonya: The Long and Potholed Road”
The New York Times Magazine, February 1998 (about Tonya Harding’s relationship with the media)
“Questions for Mike Wallace”'
The New York Times Magazine, November 1998 (author of Gotham: A History of New York to 1898)
“Questions For Emily Jenkins”
The New York Times Magazine, August 1998 (author of Tongue First: Adventures in Physical Culture)
Frank McCourt
The New York Times Magazine ("Money" issue), June 1998 (author of Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis)
“Questions For Robert Dallek”
The New York Times Magazine, April 1998 (historian and author of a biography on Lyndon Johnson)
“Questions for T.C. Boyle”
The New York Times Magazine, February 1998 (author of Riven Rock)
“Talking With Lynne Tillman”
Newsday, February 1998 (author of No Lease on Life)
“Questions For Claudio Tamburrini”
The New York Times Magazine, February 1998 (professor of “sports philosophy”)
“Talking With David Gates”
Newsday, January 1998 (Newsweek critic and author of Preston Falls and Jernigan)
“I’ve Been Very Bad”
The New York Times Magazine, October 1997 (about the literary trend towards confessional non-fiction)
“Questions For Anita Hill”
The New York Times Magazine, September 1997 (author of Speaking Truth to Power)
“Questions For Piet Vroon”
The New York Times Magazine, August 1997 (professor of psychology at Utrecht University, author of Smell: the Secret Seducer)
Robert Bingham
Time Out New York, July 1997 (author of Pure Slaughter Value)
“Questions for Thomas Lynch”
The New York Times Magazine, July 1997 (poet, essayist and mortician, author of The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade)
A Supposedly True Thing or Two: An Interview with David Foster Wallace
Time Out New York, January 1997 (on publication of A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again)
“Questions for Lisa Carver”
The New York Times Magazine, November 1996 (creator and editor of the 'zine Rollerderby and author of Dancing Queen: A Lusty Look at the American Dream)
Robert Olen Butler
Time Out New York, November 1996 (author of a A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and Tabloid Dreams)
Mona Simpson
Time Out New York, October 1996 (author of A Regular Guy)
Duchamp: A Biography
by Calvin Tomkins, Art & Antiques, December 1996
Conversations with Tom Stoppard
by Mel Gussow, Time Out New York, September 1996
Angela’s Ashes
by Frank McCourt, Salon.com, September 1996
Accordian Crimes
by E. Annie Proulx, Time Out New York, June 1996
Cruising Paradise: Tales
by Sam Shepard, Time Out New York, May 1996