Writings
  • Book Reviews
    ‘Forbidden Notebook’ is a slyly subversive novel by a writer once banned (Feb 2023)
  • Essays
    Joan Didion’s Priceless Sunglasses (Nov 2022)
  • Essays
    Wallace Stegner and the Trap of Using Other People’s Writing (Jun 2022)
  • Essays
    Georgia O’Keeffe Finally Arrives in Paris (Oct 2021)
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Modern Woolfian Fiction (Aug 2021)
  • Essays
    How I Met the Reclusive Georgia O’Keeffe (Oct 2020)
  • Essays
    Militarizing the Police (Jul 2020)
  • Essays
    “Ahem, Cornwall!” (What I Did During Covid) (Jun 2020)
  • Essays
    UPDATE: Trump and the Criminal Culture (May 2020)
  • Essays
    Quarantine Culture Recommendations (Apr 2020)
  • Essays
    Trump and the Criminal Culture (Updated) (Apr 2020)
  • Holding Virginia Woolf in Your Hands, in The New Yorker (Jan 2020)
  • Essays
    The Rivalry between Georgia O’Keeffe and her sister Ida (Sep 2019)
  • Essays
    Struggling to Mine Family History for My Novel (May 2019)
  • Essays
    Reading Myself Aloud: Making the Audio Book of Dawson’s Fall (Apr 2019)
  • Travel
    Returned to the wild: A 3,500-acre estate outside London is ruled by nature (Jan 2019)
  • Book Reviews
    Christie Watson Is a Lovely Writer — and, Judging From This Book, a Gifted Nurse (Jul 2018)
  • Essays
    Breathing (Jul 2018)
  • Essays
    The Contradictions of Hemingway’s House in Cuba (Dec 2017)
  • Essays
    Teaching “Madame Bovary” (Nov 2017)
  • Essays
    Writers, Veterans, Citizens take to the Halls of Congress (Feb 2017)
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Forward to The Road Ahead (Jan 2017)
    The Road Ahead
  • Book Reviews
    For Two Small-Town Families, War Is the Tie That Binds (Jan 2017)
  • Essays
    Donald Trump: Making the Word ‘Pussy’ Great Again, Bigly (Jan 2017)
  • Essays
    Morning After (Nov 2016)
  • Essays
    Introduction to LOVING, by Henry Green (Oct 2016)
  • Essays
    The violation of Elena Ferrante (Oct 2016)
  • Essays
    Dear President: A Message for the Next Commander in Chief From Fifty American Poets and Writers (Aug 2017)
  • Essays
    Authors Guild: Letter from the President (Mar 2016)
  • Essays
    How Google Stole the Work of Millions of Authors (Feb 2016)
  • Book Reviews
    ‘Youngblood’ review: A novel about the Iraq War from a soldier who was there (Jan 2016)
  • Essays
    Why Fiction Matters (Oct 2015)
  • Book Reviews
    Sweet Caress, by William Boyd (Sep 2015)
  • Essays
    Against Lolita (Sep 2015)
  • Essays
    An introduction to Elizabeth Taylor’s A View of the Harbour (Jun 2015)
  • Essays
    Remembering Robert Stone (Jan 2015)
  • Book Reviews
    Faith and Suspicion: On Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Lila’ (Jan 2015)
  • Essays
    Sparta (Sep 2014)
  • Book Reviews
    My Life as a Foreign Country by Brian Turner (Sep 2014)
  • Book Reviews
    Between Women (Sep 2014)
  • Essays
    The Right to Write (Jun 2014)
  • Essays
    Away (Jun 2014)
  • Essays
    Army of Shadows (Jun 2014)
  • Essays
    On Philip Seymour Hoffman and Heroin (Feb 2014)
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Facing the Change: Personal Encounters with Global Warming (Feb 2014)
    Torrey House Press
  • Essays
    Reading to Write (Dec 2013)
  • Essays
    A Tribute to Alice Munro (Oct 2013)
  • Essays
    Writers on Munro (Oct 2013)
  • Book Reviews
    Love Story Electrifies Beneath The Silhouette ‘Of Venus’ (Sep 2013)
  • Book Reviews
    Review of Someone, latest novel by Alice McDermott (Sep 2013)
  • Essays
    The Dark Heart of James Salter (Jun 2013)
  • Essays
    Burn Your Letters? (May 2013)
  • Essays
    God Calls (Apr 2013)
  • Essays
    Heart’s Desire (Mar 2013)
  • Essays
    Opera on HD (Mar 2013)
  • Essays
    New York’s Phantom Bookstores (Feb 2013)
  • Essays
    How I Get to ‘Write’ (Jan 2013)
  • Anthologies & Collections
    What My Mother Gave Me (Jan 2013)
    Algonquin
  • Travel
    A Different Sort of Nature: The Gardens of Kyoto (Oct 2012)
  • Essays
    Response to Jonathan Franzen on Edith Wharton (Aug 2012)
  • Book Reviews
    Marilynne Robinson’s ‘When I Was a Child I Read Books’: Essays on faith, reading (May 2012)
  • Essays
    Edith Wharton, a Writer’s Reflections (Apr 2012)
  • Essays
    The Strange Career of Frank Dawson (Mar 2012)
  • Essays
    The Lethal Consequences of Fracking (Feb 2012)
  • Book Reviews
    Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz (Nov 2011)
  • Essays
    My Wooden Deer Carving (Nov 2011)
  • Essays
    Great-Aunt Hattie’s ‘Little Book’ (Sep 2011)
  • Essays
    In the North Tower (Sep 2011)
  • Essays
    VS Naipaul and Women’s Tosh (Jun 2011)
  • Essays
    Naipaul’s Comments Reflective Of ‘Hubris (Jun 2011)
  • Book Reviews
    Francisco Goldman’s Say Her Name (Apr 2011)
  • Essays
    Up Front: Roxana Robinson (Jan 2011)
  • Book Reviews
    Stories of Dislocation and Relocation (Jan 2011)
  • Book Reviews
    Philip Roth’s Nemesis (Oct 2010)
  • Essays
    Paralyzed: Learning to Live in the Shadow of Polio (Sep 2010)
  • Essays
    Vanishing Point (Jul 2010)
  • Short Stories
    Honey (May 2010)
    The American Scholar
  • Short Stories
    This Is America (Apr 2010)
    The Atlantic
  • Short Stories
    The Bureau (Apr 2010)
  • Book Reviews
    The Privileges (Jan 2010)
    The New York Times Book Review
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Table of Contents (Jan 2010)
    Adams Media
  • Anthologies & Collections
    More New York Stories (Jan 2010)
    NYU Press
  • Short Stories
    The Trade (Dec 2009)
    PEN Journal
  • Essays
    Kentucky Bread (Nov 2009)
  • Book Reviews
    Richard Russo’s That Old Cape Magic (Aug 2009)
    The New York Times Book Review
  • Essays
    Stopping Heroin Before It’s Too Late (Jul 2009)
  • Essays
    Unpacking (Jun 2009)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    The Writer’s Notebook (Jun 2009)
  • Essays
    Soul Train (May 2009)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Nancy Clark’s, The Hills at Home (Mar 2009)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    And if that mockingbird don’t sing (Mar 2009)
  • Essays
    A Mockingbird’s Cry of Desperation (Mar 2009)
  • Book Reviews
    The Good Parents (Feb 2009)
    *The New York Times Book Review* / *International Herald Tribune*
  • Essays
    On John Updike (Jan 2009)
  • Book Reviews
    Carlos Fuentes’ Happy Families (Oct 2008)
    The Washington Post
  • Short Stories
    The Finish Line (Oct 2008)
    Good Housekeeping
  • Essays
    Classics: On Edith Wharton (Jul 2008)
    Chekhov's Mistress
  • Essays
    Campaign for the American Reader (Jul 2008)
  • Essays
    Book Notes: Cost (Jun 2008)
  • Essays
    A Literary Glass Ceiling (Apr 2008)
    Chicago Tribune
  • Essays
    My Mother’s Home (Dec 2007)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    The Leap (Dec 2007)
    The American Scholar
  • Essays
    Nan (Oct 2007)
    More magazine
  • Essays
    Natural Resources Defense Council (Jul 2007)
    NRDC Action Blog
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave (Jul 2007)
  • Essays
    The Novelist and the Curious Cabbie (Jun 2007)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    Drowning in Apathy (Jan 2007)
    The Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Anthologies & Collections
    The Empty Nest (Jan 2007)
    Hyperion
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Mr. Wrong (Jan 2007)
    Ballantine Books
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Introduction to The New York Stories of Edith Wharton (Jan 2007)
    New York Review of Books
  • Essays
    Wild Duck (Dec 2006)
    The Southern Review
  • Essays
    The Night Ride (Nov 2006)
    More magazine
  • Essays
    The Monarch and the Milkweed (Sep 2006)
    International Herald Tribune
  • Essays
    The Monarch and the Milkweed (Sep 2006)
    The Boston Globe
  • Essays
    Mother, Once Removed (Jun 2006)
    Real Simple
  • Travel
    Sailing Through the Classics (Feb 2006)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    Watching as the World Vanishes (Jan 2006)
    The Boston Globe
  • Anthologies & Collections
    This Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America’s Best Women Writers (Jan 2006)
    Random House
  • Anthologies & Collections
    My Father Married Your Mother (Jan 2006)
    W. W. Norton
  • Essays
    This Dog’s Life (Oct 2005)
    Women's Health
  • Essays
    Gendered Genres (Aug 2005)
    Chicago Tribune
  • Essays
    On Writing (Jul 2005)
  • Essays
    NRDC Action Blog (Jul 2005)
    NRDC Action Blog
  • Essays
    Writing Spaces (Apr 2005)
  • Short Stories
    A Perfect Stranger (Apr 2005)
    One Story
  • Book Reviews
    In the Company of Crows and Ravens (Jan 2005)
    The Wilson Quarterly
  • Essays
    Foreword to The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jan 2005)
    Modern Library
  • Essays
    Coyote (Jan 2005)
    Mississippi Review
  • Essays
    Breathing Partners (Oct 2004)
    The Boston Globe
  • Short Stories
    Intersection (Sep 2004)
    Ms. magazine
  • Travel
    New Zealand’s Natural Wonders (Jul 2004)
    Travel and Leisure
  • Short Stories
    Blind Man (Jun 2004)
    Daedalus
  • Travel
    To Russia, With Books (May 2004)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    A Hare Out of Season (Feb 2004)
    The Boston Globe
  • Travel
    The Lairs of the Russian Literary Lions (Dec 2003)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    The Setting of Sweetwater (Dec 2003)
    Adirondack Life
  • Essays
    My Dog Lacey (Sep 2003)
    The Bark
  • Essays
    The Fabric of Life in a Meadow (Jul 2003)
    Fine Gardening
  • Travel
    Wombats and Wallabies (Jun 2003)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    A Calm, Quiet Place: Watermark (Jun 2003)
    House Beautiful
  • Short Stories
    At the Beach (May 2003)
    Good Housekeeping
  • Essays
    Introduction to The Old Maid: The Fifties (Jan 2003)
    Modern Library
  • Essays
    Box Step (Dec 2002)
    House and Garden
  • Short Stories
    Treatment (Sep 2002)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Essays
    Chandelier (Aug 2002)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    The Last Summer (Jul 2002)
    The Washington Post
  • Book Reviews
    On Eugene McCabe’s, Death and Nightingales (Apr 2002)
    The Washington Post Book World
  • Anthologies & Collections
    City Secrets: New York City (Jan 2002)
    The Little Bookroom
  • Anthologies & Collections
    110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11 (Jan 2002)
    NYU Press
  • Essays
    Here Comes the Mother of the Bride (Aug 2001)
    Vogue
  • Essays
    Great Expectations (Jan 2001)
    The New York Times Magazine
  • Essays
    The Ice Age (Jan 2001)
    The New York Times Book Review
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Writing for a Lifetime: Contemporary Readings From Popular Sources (Jan 2001)
    Prentice-Hall
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Writers on Writing: Collected Essays From the New York Times (Jan 2001)
    Times Books
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Best American Mystery Stories of 2001 (Jan 2001)
    Houghton Mifflin
  • Short Stories
    Family Christmas (Dec 2000)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Essays
    Listening Silence (Oct 2000)
    The Wall Street Journal
  • Essays
    Dogs in My Life (Sep 2000)
    Victoria Magazine
  • Short Stories
    The Face-Lift (Aug 2000)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Essays
    If You Write the Story… (Jul 2000)
    The New York Times
  • Travel
    A Walking Trip in the Sicilian Countryside (Mar 2000)
    Travel and Leisure
  • Book Reviews
    Karen Bender’s Like Normal People (Jan 2000)
    The Washington Post
  • Short Stories
    Assistance (Dec 1999)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Essays
    Instant Intimacy (Apr 1999)
    The New York Times Magazine
  • Essays
    When Tragedy in Literature Is a Family Affair (Nov 1998)
    The Boston Globe
  • Essays
    Censorship or Common Sense (Oct 1998)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Susan Minot’s Evening (Oct 1998)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    Personal Growth (May 1998)
    House and Garden
  • Book Reviews
    Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller (Apr 1998)
    The Washington Post
  • Book Reviews
    David Gates’, Preston Falls (Feb 1998)
    The Washington Post
  • Anthologies & Collections
    The Second Penguin Book of Modern Women’s Short Stories (Jan 1998)
    Michael Joseph
  • Book Reviews
    (Dec 1997)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Fernanda Eberstadt’s When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth (Mar 1997)
    The New York Times
  • Essays
    The Stepmother (Feb 1997)
    Vogue
  • Book Reviews
    Janet Peery’s The River Beyond the World (Dec 1996)
    The Washington Post
  • Book Reviews
    Shena Mackay’s The Orchard on Fire (Nov 1996)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Mona Simpson’s A Regular Guy (Oct 1996)
    The Washington Post Book World
  • Travel
    Horses of Another Color (Jul 1996)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Louise Erdrich’s Tales of Burning Love (Apr 1996)
    The Washington Post
  • Short Stories
    The Favor (Jan 1996)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood (Jan 1996)
    Farrar Straus
  • Book Reviews
    Sue Miller’s The Distinguished Guest (May 1995)
    The Los Angeles Times
  • Short Stories
    King of the Sky (Nov 1994)
    Harper's
  • Short Stories
    Leaving Home (Sep 1994)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Travel
    Carl Larsson’s House (May 1994)
    The New York Times
  • Anthologies & Collections
    The Best American Short Stories 1994 (Jan 1994)
    Houghton Mifflin
  • Book Reviews
    Beatrice Kert’s, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (Oct 1993)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    Sleepover (May 1993)
    Glimmer Train
  • Book Reviews
    Mary Morris’s, A Mother’s Love (Apr 1993)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    Mr. Sumarsono (Apr 1993)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Book Reviews
    Diane Johnson’s Natural Opium (Jan 1993)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Louis Auchincloss’s False Gods (Mar 1992)
    The New York Times
  • Art History
    William M. Harnett (Jan 1992)
    Harry Abrams
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Introduction to A Matter of Prejudice (Jan 1992)
    Bantam
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Contemporary New England Stories (Jan 1992)
    Globe Pequot Press
  • Book Reviews
    Peter Cameron, Far-Flung (Sep 1991)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    On David Small’s Alone (Jul 1991)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Learning to Look and Gallery Going (Jun 1991)
    Newsday
  • Short Stories
    The Time for Kissing (Feb 1991)
    The Atlantic Monthly
  • Short Stories
    At the Heart of My Life (Graduation) (Sep 1990)
    Wigwag magazine
  • Travel
    Bulls, Bravery, and Bounty in St.-Remy (May 1990)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Rebels on 8th Street: Julianna Force and the Whitney Museum of American Art (Apr 1990)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    A Glimpse of Scarlet (Mar 1990)
    New York Woman
  • Anthologies & Collections
    The Resourceful Writer: Readings to Accompany the Harbrace College Handbook, Second Edition (Jan 1990)
    Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
  • Travel
    On the Ancient Nile, a Modern Voyage (Oct 1989)
    The New York Times
  • Travel
    A Puritan at the Helm (Mar 1989)
    The New York Times
  • Anthologies & Collections
    Wives and Husbands: 20 Stories About Marriage (Jan 1989)
    Mentor Books
  • Travel
    Investing in an Absence of Civilization (Dec 1988)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Jill Paton Walsh, Lapsing (Jan 1988)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    Charity Dance (Dec 1987)
    The Southern Review
  • Short Stories
    Charity Dance (Jul 1987)
    The Fiction Magazine
  • Travel
    Total Immersion in a Flood of French (Feb 1987)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Dorie Friend, Family Laundry (Jan 1987)
    The New York Times
  • Travel
    John Gardner Tennis Ranch (Nov 1986)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Parlour 4 and Other Stories (Aug 1986)
    The New York Times
  • Travel
    The Lure of London’s Chelsea Flower Show (Apr 1986)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Francis King, One Is a Wanderer (Mar 1986)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    Snowfall (Feb 1986)
    The Fiction Magazine
  • Book Reviews
    Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (Dec 1985)
    The Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Book Reviews
    At Freddie’s (Sep 1985)
    The New York Times
  • Short Stories
    Layering (Aug 1985)
    The Fiction Magazine
  • Book Reviews
    Jewels (Apr 1985)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Villa Aphrodite (Nov 1984)
    The New York Times
  • Book Reviews
    Three Novels (Mar 1984)
    The Philadelphia Inquirer
  • Art History
    Introduction to Arthur Dove (Jan 1984)
    University of Delaware Press
  • Short Stories
    Getting On (Mar 1983)
    The New Yorker
  • Art History
    19th Century Picnic Paintings: An Arcadian Idyll (Jan 1983)
    Art & Antiques
  • Art History
    The Bathing Scene: People on the Beach in American Art, 1700–1900 (Sep 1981)
    Antiques World
  • Art History
    Plane Truths (Sep 1981)
    Art & Antiques
  • Art History
    Land of Plenty: 19th Century American Picnic and Harvest Scenes (Jan 1981)
    The Katonah Gallery
  • Art History
    Where Are America’s Missing Masterpieces? (Dec 1980)
    ARTnews
  • Short Stories
    Daughter (Nov 1980)
    McCall's
  • Art History
    Plane Truths: 19th Century American Trompe l’Oeil Painting (Jan 1980)
    The Katonah Gallery
  • The Age of Blood and Iron: Marsden Hartley in Berlin (Oct 1979)
    Arts
  • Art History
    Shapes of Industry: First Images in American Art (Jan 1975)
    Terry Dintenfass Gallery
  • Art History
    Rousseau, Buffalo Bill, and the European Image of the American Indian (Jan 1975)
    ARTnews