On this page, you’ll find titles of (and some links to) some of my nonfiction writing: articles on the craft/business/pedagogy of writing, opinion pieces/commentary, memoir, and more.
For a selected list of my published book reviews, please visit this page. For more information on the magazines and websites I’ve worked with as a freelance writer (and a sense of other subjects I’ve covered), please visit this page.
PERSONAL ESSAYS/MEMOIR
- “The Un-Stunned,” TC Jewfolk, January 2020.
- “On Being a Jewish American Writer in 2018,” Moment, November 2018.
- “Why I’m Going Back to Hebrew School: 40 Years Later,” Forward, October 2017.
- “The Ancestral Presence I’d Invite, If I Could Do It Again,” reBar, July 2015.
- The “Sunday in the City” essay sequence: “Sunday in the City,” carte blanche, Fall 2012; “Lucky Day,” Proto, Summer 2013; “Before Sunrise,” Brevity, March 2013; “At the Station House,” Contrary, Summer 2013.
- “My Life as a Bully,” J Journal, Spring 2013.
- “Big Sisterhood,” Manor House Quarterly, Summer 2012.
- “Comprehension,” Hippocampus Magazine, May 2012.
- “The Twin Towers: A Personal History in Four Parts,” Quay 2.2 (July-December 2008).
- “Continuing Education,” Threshold: Passages from Prague (Prague Summer Press, 2004).
- “A Manual for the Auntie-to-Be,” Jewish Journal, April 2004.
- “Passport from the Past,” Boston Sunday Globe, August 1997.
- “The Big Chill,” Child, May-June 1987.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
- “The New York Times Got Their Israel Reading List All Wrong. Here’s a Better One,” Tablet, September 2017.
- “Mourning Alan Rickman on Social Media: It’s Complicated,” Tablet, January 2016.
- “A Not-so-Modest Proposal: Add Another Matriarch to the Mix,” Lilith blog, January 2014.
- “Why I’m Going to See an ‘Anti-Israel’ Play,” Forward.com (Arty Semite blog), January 2014.
- “Childless Does Not Mean Clueless,” Forward.com (The Sisterhood blog), August 2013.
- “My (Hopefully) Last Post on the Alice Walker Affair,” Forward.com (The Sisterhood blog), August 2013.
- “Alice Walker Isn’t Welcome — And Rightly So,” Forward.com (The Sisterhood blog), August 2013.
- “Beyond Birthright: How Fortysomethings Can Cultivate Jewish Connections,” eJewish Philanthropy, July 2013.
- “On Jewish Writing,” JewishJournal.com, May 2013.
- “Sheryl Sandberg, the VIDA Count and Lessons on Leaning In,” VQRonline.org, April 2013.
- “Wrong-Way Runners,” NYTimes.com, March 2012.
- “Among the Literati,” Jewish Ideas Daily, January 2012.
ARTICLES ON THE CRAFT, BUSINESS, AND PEDAGOGY OF WRITING
- “Publishing Tip: What to Look for in Newsletters and Resource Lists,” The Malahat Review, December 2017.
- “Making Poetry Pay: Five Ways to Increase Your Poetry Income,” AWP’s “The Writer’s Notebook,” July 2017.
- “13 Questions to Ask Before Submitting to a Literary Journal,” Literary Hub, June 2016.
- “Five Ways for Writers to Avoid Oversharing,” MissouriReview.com, May 2015.
- “After the MFA: Fantasy, Reality, and Lessons Learned,” Poets & Writers (online exclusive), September/October 2014.
- “Habits of Highly Successful Short Story Writers,” in Rachel Randall, ed., 2014 Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market, (Blue Ash, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 2013). ISBN 978-1599637297.
- “5 Free and Easy Ways to Promote Your Book,” The Writer, September 2012.
- “Improve Your Winning Chances: Niche Literary Competitions and Awards May Mean Less Competition for You,” The Writer, February 2012.
- “7 Reasons This Writer May Unfollow You on Twitter,” Writermag.com, December 2011.
- “Find a Custom Home at a Niche Journal,” The Writer, November 2011.
- “What’s in a Title?” CenterforFiction.org, July 2011.
- “Get the Most Out of the AWP Conference,” The Writer, February 2011.
- “Niche MFAs,” The Writer, November 2010.
- “Choosing a Low-Residency Program in Creative Writing,” in Tom Kealey, ed., The Creative Writing MFA Handbook, rev. ed. (New York: Continuum, 2008). ISBN 978-0-8264-2886-8.
- “MFA Grads Find Nonteaching Jobs on Campus,” The Writer, November 2008.
- “Ethics Cheat Sheet,” Writer’s Digest, December 2006.
- “How to Submit Your Short Story,” The Writer, October 2005. (Republished in Short-story Basics, a supplement to The Writer.)
- “Learning Short-Story Writing By Example,” The Writer, September 2005. (Republished in Short-story Basics, a supplement to The Writer.)
- “Minding Your Online Manners,” Writer’s Digest, June 2005.
- “Make the Most of Your Next Conference Workshop,” The Writer, April 2005.
- “The Lowdown on Low-Residency Programs,” Poets & Writers, March-April 2005. (Republished in The Poets & Writers Guide to MFA Programs.)
- “Beyond Writing Conferences & Residencies: More Summer Opportunities for Writers Who Teach, AWP Job List, January 2005.
- “In Praise of Polyglossia,” Matrix 66 (Spring 2004).
- “Pushing the Limits of ‘Writing What You Know,'” The Willamette Writer, May 2004. (Revised version of a paper presented at the “Limits of the Past: The Human Sciences and the Turn to Memory” conference at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., April 2002.)
- “Keeping Silent? Writing Fiction After September 11,” Queen’s Quarterly 111(1): Spring 2004, 35-43. (Revised version of a paper presented at the “Why Write?” conference held at Columbia University in New York City, 28-29 May 2003; republished by Numéro Cinq in 2011.)
- “A Focus on James’s ‘Surrounding Scene’: Examining the Place of Paris in The Ambassadors,” Henry James Review 25.1 (2004): 44-51. (Revised version of a presentation delivered at the “Henry James Today” conference in Paris, July 2002.)
- “Surviving MFA Critiques,” The Writer, January 2004.
- “‘Yeats Summer Camp,’ Or What I Did Over My Summer Vacation,” Literary Traveler, Fall 2003.
- “Letters to a Young Writer”/”Why I Write,” Teachers & Writers, May-June 2003.
- “Closing Shop: The Last Writing Class,” Kansas English 88.1 (Spring 2003): 79-81. (Reprinted in a revised version as “A Fine Finish” in Community College Week, May 2004.)
- “Common Ground: Crafting ‘Fact’ and ‘Fiction,'” Arizona English Bulletin 45.1 (Spring 2003): 34-37.
- “Making a Living, Making a Life: A Workshop in Character Development,” Oregon English Journal 24.1 (Spring 2002): 27-29. (Reprinted in a revised version as “Working Men and Women: Characters and Their Development,” by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.)
OTHER ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
- “Five Israel-Infused Picture Books for Year-Round Reading,” Jewish Journal, December 2021.
- “Ben Kingsley’s 5 Most Memorable Jewish Roles, from Moses to Anne Frank’s Dad,” JTA, August 2018.
- “Inside Scoop from ‘Fauda”s Creators,” Jewish Journal, June 2018.
- “Mazal Tov to a New Jewish Book Award,” Tablet, February 2018.
- “The Woman Who Rescued Jewish Books,” Forward, November 2017
- “Custom Made: Jewish Fashion from The Israel Museum in New York,” Hadassah, November 2017.
- “Gallery Show by Hadar Goldin, IDF Soldier Kidnapped and Killed by Hamas, Opens in Brooklyn,” Tablet, September 2017.
- “How ‘The Red Tent’ Invented a New Kind of Fiction,” JTA, August 2017.
- “A Special Kind of Kinship: On Being a ‘3G’ Writer,” in Third-Generation Holocaust Narratives: Memory in Memoir and Fiction, edited by Victoria Aarons (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2016), 1-16. ISBN 13: 978-1498517164.
- “Jewish Literature Isn’t Dead: It’s Being Written by Women,” Literary Hub, October 2016
- “The Secret Jewish History of ‘The Little Prince,'” Forward, August 2016.
- “Immigrant Story: The Value of Anzia Yezierska’s ‘Bread Givers’,” Tablet, December 2015
- “5 Jewish Books to Read in 2014,” Forward.com (Arty Semite blog), December 2013.
- “10 Ways to Celebrate Jewish Book Month,” Forward.com (Arty Semite blog), October 2013.
- “Meeting Comics Artist Rutu Modan,” TheJewishWeek.com (Well Versed blog), September 2013.
- “Aciman and Krauss: Live from the NYPL,” TheJewishWeek.com (Well Versed blog), April 2013.
- “Zionism Before Herzl,” Jewish Ideas Daily, April 2013.
- “Looking Anew at Holocaust Literature,” TheJewishWeek.com (Well Versed blog), February 2013.
- “Women Helped Jewish Lit Evolve in 2012,” Forward.com (Arty Semite blog), December 2012.
- “Remembering Munich, in Fact and Fiction,” Forward.com (Arty Semite blog), July 2012.
- “Looking Backward: Third-Generation Fiction Writers and the Holocaust,” Fiction Writers Review, April 2011.
- “Authors Discuss ‘Writing in Jewish’: Postcards from New York City,” Poets & Writers (pw.org), September 2007.
- “A Room of Anzia Yezierska’s Own,” JBooks.com, May 2007.
- “Introduction,” The Charterhouse of Parma, by Stendhal, trans. Lady Mary Lloyd (New York: Barnes and Noble Publishing, 2006), vii-xii. ISBN 13: 978-0-7607-7765-7.
- “Ever After? History, Healing, and ‘Holocaust Fiction’ in the Third Generation,” in Beyond Camps and Forced Labour: Current International Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution, edited by Johannes-Dieter Steiner and Inge Weber-Newth (Osnabrück: Secolo Verlag, 2005), 524-30. ISBN 3-929979-73-X. (Revised version of paper presented at “Beyond Camps and Forced Labour” conference at the Imperial War Museum, London, 29-31 January 2003.)
- “Summer Break: Horror to Hemingway, What’s Worth Reading,” New York Times Education Life, April 2004.
- “Staying Jewish in America” (essay on Ludwig Lewisohn’s The Island Within), JBooks.com, 2003.
“A VIEW FROM THE USA” COLUMNS IN THE JEWISH CHRONICLE (UK)
- “There’s More to Shavuot than Cheesecake,” May 2018.
- “A Prayer for More Accurate Historical Knowledge,” April 2018.
- “How Oprah Re-acquainted Me with Modeh Ani,” March 2018.
- “Double Standards: The Case of Andrea Mitchell,” February 2018.
- “My Personal King and Very Own Queen Esther,” January 2018
- “Looking Forward to a Year in Good Reading,” December 2017
- “One Year Later It Remains Difficult to Believe,” November 2017.
- “Voices from the Vietnam War Are Still Relevant,” September 2017.