Remembering the great Binyavanga Wainaina, and how his classic “How to Write about Africa” came to be published, in LitHub, May 24, 2019
“Marginalia”, on the art of editing general-interest nonfiction, in What Editors Do, edited by Peter Ginna, University of Chicago Press, 2017
On oral history and the genius of Ronald Blythe’s Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, Slate, October 10, 2015
On Boris Kachka’s Hothouse and the distinguished firm of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Bookforum, June 1013
On the delights of Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, in My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2012
On Robert Coover’s masterpiece, The Universal Baseball Association, New York Times Book Review, August 26, 2011
On the wild-eyed ghost of Delmore Schwartz, Los Angeles Review of Books, December 24, 2011
The Old Testament? Meh, overrated, Slate, August 11, 2011
What exactly is the Midwest (and why does it have such a lousy name)?, The Smart Museum’s Heartland exhibition catalogue, 2009
On Laura Miller’s The Magician’s Book, New York Observer, December 9, 2008
Ten books that make a Minnesotan proud, Omnivoracious blog on Amazon.com, November 24, 2008
On Sarah Lyall’s The Anglo Files, New York Times Book Review, August 24, 2008
Let’s hear it for George Rippey Stewart and Names on the Land, his classic account of how pretty much everything in America got its name, Slate, June 30, 2008
On comedy in the 1970s and an idol of my youth, Don “Father Guido Sarducci” Novello, New York Times Book Review, March 16, 2008
On Will Self’s Psychogeography, New York Times Book Review, December 23, 2007
On Philip Roth and death, The Nation, November 21, 2007
On John Updike’s nonfiction, New York Observer, October 23, 2007
On Denis Johnson’s Tree of Life, New York Observer, September 4, 2007
On Jack Kerouac and the key to good living: low overhead, New York Times Book Review, August 19, 2007
Settled once and for all: London vs. New York, New York Magazine (with Eugenia Bell), March 18, 2007
On Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review, February 11, 2007
Five things to envy Italy for, a talk in Florence on the occasion of the Writers World Cup, September 16, 2006
On soccer in the 1970s and the great South African (and Minnesota Kicks) midfielder Ace Ntsoelengoe, The New Republic, June 19, 2006
Ten books to read about soccer, Amazon.com, June 28, 2006