From the category archives:

Articles

A selection of my published work since 2001 is available here. Contact me with any specific requests.

The Starving Artist’s Revenge

Originally in: New York Observer

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. By Lewis Hyde. Vintage, 435 pages.

Thumbnail image for The Starving Artist’s Revenge

That first solo exhibit, magazine contract or book advance—for creative types, there’s nothing so thrilling as the promise of artistic breakthrough. Ask friends in publishing, …

[read more]

Music is Cure and Curse

Originally in: San Francisco Chronicle

Tales of Music and the Brain. By Oliver Sacks. Knopf; 381 pages.

Thumbnail image for Music is Cure and Curse

Who is the most important person in your local hospital? Seek – or, rather, listen – and ye shall find, according to Oliver Sacks.

Leading …

[read more]

Q&A with Lewis Lapham

Originally in: Boston Globe's Ideas section

Thumbnail image for Q&A with Lewis Lapham

Machiavelli predicted the Blackwater debacle. The Qing dynasty’s homeland security experts knew Great Walls make for great neighbors. Riding the rails was safer in Joseph …

[read more]

Literary Death Match

"Judging you is like egging a convent," observed New Yorker editor Ben Greenman of one contestant, shortly before the flinging commenced at last night's Literary Death Match at The Kitchen.
[read more]

A Valentine to Science, a Primer for Adults

Originally in: Globe and Mail

THE CANON: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. By Natalie Angier.

Thumbnail image for A Valentine to Science, a Primer for Adults

‘Science is huge,” explains Natalie Angier, “a great ocean of human experience; it’s the product and point of having the most deeply corrugated brain of …

[read more]

The Day the Yearbook Died

Thumbnail image for The Day the Yearbook Died

Dead-tree books may be passé, but kids still want a place to keep their memories—and keep them current.

When students at El Camino High School …

[read more]

Librarything.com

Shelf Life column

Thumbnail image for Librarything.com

As long as there have been books, there have been people eager to judge them–and their respective owners–by their covers. As Rob Gordon, the vinyl …

[read more]

Ian Hundley’s Quilting Bee

Thumbnail image for Ian Hundley’s Quilting Bee

The “B” here should stand for Brooklyn, which is where the North Ontario native Ian Hundley calls home and studio for a haute-quilting operation that …

[read more]