- “The Bucket”
Preachy, August 16, 2021
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Reading and Writing Again: On Zadie Smith’s ‘Intimations’
” LA Review of Books, November 8, 2020
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A Queens Cheer
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (8 PAGES): Download article
Racquet, No. 14, Summer 2020
- “Lloyd’s Mattress”
Longreads, May 26, 2020
- “But It’s Only Tuesday”
- Instagram, April 25, 2020
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We Need to Talk
” Guernica, December 24, 2019
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Father’s Little Helper
” Longreads, June 12, 2019
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Culture Shock
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (6 PAGES): Download article
Oxford American, Fall 2018
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The Extravagant Inversion of Values
” Popula, July 24, 2018
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The Soul-Crushing Student Essay
” New York Times Sunday Review, April 21, 2018
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Between the Wolf in the Tall Grass and the Wolf in the Tall Story: A Course on Empathy
” Longreads, February 1, 2018
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Misskiss
” Guernica, May 3, 2017
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Something More Than Correctness
” Literary Hub, April 20, 2017
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Writing Our America
” Longreads, February 9, 2017
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Resistance Literature: On Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
” Literary Hub, January 6, 2017
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Election Should Spur Prayer and Resistance
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (3 PAGES): Download article
Waterford (Wis.) Post, November 25, 2016
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Baldwin in the Obama Years
” Guernica, November 4, 2016
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Give Me Love
” LA Review of Books, October 26, 2016
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Review of The Hero's Body, by William Giraldi
” Bookforum Daily Review, August 12, 2016
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The Courage to Sound like Ourselves
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (20 PAGES): Download article
From When the Rewards Can Be So Great: Essays on Writing and the Writing Life, edited by Kwame Dawes. Forest Grove, Oregon: 1849 Editions, 2016.
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Good for You: What Makes a Happy Family?
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (6 PAGES): Download article
Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2016
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On Chest Hair and the Mystery of Fathers
” The Literary Hub, August 7, 2015
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Friends to This Ground
” Guernica Daily, July 23, 2015
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Guantánamo Diary and the American Slave Narrative
” New Yorker Page-Turner blog, April 16, 2015
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Forced Feeding: The Torture of Keeping Detainees Alive
” Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2015
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Christ Actually Argues for Belief through Imitation
” Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2014
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Fast Food
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (8 PAGES): Download article
Lucky Peach, Winter 2014
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The Meaning of Emancipation Day
” New York Times Disunion blog, August 4, 2014
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Our Common Trouble
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (6 PAGES): Download article
Harper’s, June 2014
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Cooking from Scratch
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (6 PAGES): Download article
Lucky Peach, Spring 2014
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Faces of Faith
” LA Review of Books, April 21, 2014
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Anywhere, Nowhere, Elsewhere, Everywhere
” Slate Book Review, January 10, 2014
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Politics in a Refugee Camp
” New York Times Disunion blog, August 8, 2013
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Son of Man: Reza Aslan’s Zealot
” LA Review of Books, July 27, 2013
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Welcome to Zaytuna
” Religion & Politics, May 15, 2013
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No Room for Radicals
” New York Times, April 24, 2013
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A Lesson in Daily Longing
” Guernica Magazine, April 15, 2013
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Perfect Game
” Slate Book Review, April 5, 2013
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Harriet Jacobs’s War
” The New York Times Disunion blog, February 20, 2013
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Harriet Jacobs at 200
” Lapham’s Quarterly Roundtable blog, February 13, 2013
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Bar Service: An Interview with Rosie Schaap
” LA Review of Books, February 9, 2013
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Enough and More Than Enough: On Paul Elie’s Reinventing Bach
” LA Review of Books, December 5, 2012
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Stage, Struck
” The Paris Review Daily blog, September 12, 2012
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Harriet Jacobs’s First Assignment
” The New York Times Disunion blog, September 6, 2012
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Words Mean Things
” Slate Book Review, September 5, 2012
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Yasiin Bey Would Like You To Quit Calling Him Mos Def
” - PDF DOWNLOAD ( PAGES): Download article
The Awl, June 26, 2012
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American Islam
” The Chronicle Review, March 18, 2012
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The Right Moves
” The New York Times Magazine, October 16, 2011
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It’s What’s for Dinner
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (8 PAGES): Download article
Lapham’s Quarterly, Summer 2011
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The Hunt
” Lapham’s Quarterly Roundtable blog, June 26, 2011
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Misinterpreting the Legacy of the 1960s
” The Revealer, May 28, 2011
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The Past upon Its Throne
” The Revealer, January 9, 2011
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Papal Overtures
” America, November 15, 2010
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This Tennis Life
” Lapham’s Quarterly Roundtable blog, August 24, 2010
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Going Straight for the I AM
” The Revealer, June 9, 2010
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Eating Animals
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (3 PAGES): Download article
Gastronomica, Summer 2010
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African Journey
” America, November 2, 2009
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Why We Hunt
” Tin House, Spring 2009, and Killing the Buddha, June 15, 2009
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Busted Review: Home by Marilynne Robinson
” Busted Halo, October 3, 2008
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‘We Want to Live'
” America, August 8, 2008
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There is No Perfect Meal
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (3 PAGES): Download article
Science & Spirit, May/June 2008
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Having What She’s Having
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (8 PAGES): Download article
Gastronomica, Spring 2007
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Gilead, Field-Tested
” Coudal Partners’ Field-Tested Books, Summer 2006
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All That I Have Is Yours
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (6 PAGES): Download article
Harper’s, December 2005
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Looking for Its Luther
” - PDF DOWNLOAD (2 PAGES): Download article
Commonweal, November 18, 2005
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Trust vs. Love: A Study of Faith-Based Initiatives
” The Revealer, June 19, 2005
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Reading Niebuhr Instead
” Killing the Buddha, April 11, 2005
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Randall Sullivan’s The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions
” The Revealer, September 17, 2004
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What God Gap?
” The Revealer, September 7, 2004