On art & architecture
“Tales of the Catfish God: Earthquakes in Japanese Woodblock Prints,” Public Domain Review, February 2024
“Masters of the Ice: Charles Rabot’s Arctic Photographs,” Public Domain Review, January 2024
“Ikkyū in Hell: Skeletons,” Public Domain Review, October 2023
“Aftershock of the New: Woodblock Prints of Post-Disaster Tokyo,” Public Domain Review, October 2023
“A Careful Selection of Whisk Ferns,” Public Domain Review, September 2023
“The Department of Preparation: Thomas Smillie’s Photographic Survey of the Smithsonian,” Public Domain Review, July 2023
“Photographs of the Los Angeles Alligator Farm,” Public Domain Review, May 2023
“Beetle Carapaces in Basohli Miniature Paintings,”Public Domain Review, March 2023
“John H. White’s Photographs of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA,” Public Domain Review, February 2023
“In Search of True Color: Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky’s Flawed Images,” The Public Domain Review, December 2022
“Blind Spots Abound in Guggenheim Bilbao’s Car-Themed Exhibition,” Hyperallergic, September 2022
“‘I Will Take the Not-Easy Task’: An Interview with Almagul Menlibayeva,” Hypocrite Reader, July 2022
“Exploring the Politics of Masks beyond COVID,” Hyperallergic, April 2022
“The Kept and the Killed,” The Public Domain Review, January 2022
“This Constant Becoming: An Interview With Mithu Sen,” Hypocrite Reader, September 2021
“The Royal Dystopia of Poundbury,” Current Affairs, May 2021
“What It Means to Be Alive: An Interview with Ravi Amar Zupa,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2021
“We Need More Monuments to Animals,” Current Affairs, January 2020
“The Surrealpolitik of the Venice Biennale,” The Nation, November 2019
“The Cracked and the Crazed,” AGNI, October 2019 (Best American Essays Prize Notable Essay)
“Glimpses of Civil War Scars in Spanish Photography,” Hyperallergic, October 2019
“Reading the Story of London’s Hindus through Temple Architecture,” CityLab, July 2019
“The Limits of Edvard Munch’s Radicalism,” Hyperallergic, July 2019
“Mumbai Synagogue Is Restored to Former Glory,” Jewish Renaissance, July 2019
“‘Nothing Living Is Simple’: A Review of Roman Vishniac Rediscovered,” The Threepenny Review, May 2019
“A Collection Devoted to Intimate Trans Stories,” Hyperallergic, May 2019
“Don McCullin: You Have to Bear Witness,” Times Literary Supplement, April 2019
“Demonstrators Take over British Museum in Biggest-Ever Protest against Oil Sponsorships,” The Art Newspaper, February 2019
“Under the Eye of the Clock: On Deep Looking and Christian Marclay’s The Clock,” The White Review, January 2019
“In Pittsburgh’s Wake, Curators at Jewish Museums Reflect on the Importance of Their Institutions,” Hyperallergic, December 2018
“Cambridge Museums to Pilot LGBTQ+ Tours,” The Art Newspaper, November 2018
“LGBTQ Tours at the V&A Offer a New Way of Looking at the Museum,” Hyperallergic, November 2018
“The Follies,” Stinging Fly, November 2018
“Remembering the London 1938 Exhibition of German Modernism,” The Forward, fall 2018
“Paint It Black,” Berfrois, September 2018
“The Work of Art in the Age of Xerox Reproduction,” The New Inquiry, August 2018
“Mountains Between Us,” Even, summer 2018
“How the Rockefellers’ Art Dealer Forever Changed the Way the West Collects Asian Art,” Artnet, April 2018
“The Pleasure of Red,” The Threepenny Review, winter 2018 (Best American Essay Prize Notable Essay)
“Masters of the Ice: Charles Rabot’s Arctic Photographs,” Public Domain Review, January 2024
“Ikkyū in Hell: Skeletons,” Public Domain Review, October 2023
“Aftershock of the New: Woodblock Prints of Post-Disaster Tokyo,” Public Domain Review, October 2023
“A Careful Selection of Whisk Ferns,” Public Domain Review, September 2023
“The Department of Preparation: Thomas Smillie’s Photographic Survey of the Smithsonian,” Public Domain Review, July 2023
“Photographs of the Los Angeles Alligator Farm,” Public Domain Review, May 2023
“Beetle Carapaces in Basohli Miniature Paintings,”Public Domain Review, March 2023
“John H. White’s Photographs of Black Chicago for DOCUMERICA,” Public Domain Review, February 2023
“In Search of True Color: Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky’s Flawed Images,” The Public Domain Review, December 2022
“Blind Spots Abound in Guggenheim Bilbao’s Car-Themed Exhibition,” Hyperallergic, September 2022
“‘I Will Take the Not-Easy Task’: An Interview with Almagul Menlibayeva,” Hypocrite Reader, July 2022
“Exploring the Politics of Masks beyond COVID,” Hyperallergic, April 2022
“The Kept and the Killed,” The Public Domain Review, January 2022
“This Constant Becoming: An Interview With Mithu Sen,” Hypocrite Reader, September 2021
“The Royal Dystopia of Poundbury,” Current Affairs, May 2021
“What It Means to Be Alive: An Interview with Ravi Amar Zupa,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2021
“We Need More Monuments to Animals,” Current Affairs, January 2020
“The Surrealpolitik of the Venice Biennale,” The Nation, November 2019
“The Cracked and the Crazed,” AGNI, October 2019 (Best American Essays Prize Notable Essay)
“Glimpses of Civil War Scars in Spanish Photography,” Hyperallergic, October 2019
“Reading the Story of London’s Hindus through Temple Architecture,” CityLab, July 2019
“The Limits of Edvard Munch’s Radicalism,” Hyperallergic, July 2019
“Mumbai Synagogue Is Restored to Former Glory,” Jewish Renaissance, July 2019
“‘Nothing Living Is Simple’: A Review of Roman Vishniac Rediscovered,” The Threepenny Review, May 2019
“A Collection Devoted to Intimate Trans Stories,” Hyperallergic, May 2019
“Don McCullin: You Have to Bear Witness,” Times Literary Supplement, April 2019
“Demonstrators Take over British Museum in Biggest-Ever Protest against Oil Sponsorships,” The Art Newspaper, February 2019
“Under the Eye of the Clock: On Deep Looking and Christian Marclay’s The Clock,” The White Review, January 2019
“In Pittsburgh’s Wake, Curators at Jewish Museums Reflect on the Importance of Their Institutions,” Hyperallergic, December 2018
“Cambridge Museums to Pilot LGBTQ+ Tours,” The Art Newspaper, November 2018
“LGBTQ Tours at the V&A Offer a New Way of Looking at the Museum,” Hyperallergic, November 2018
“The Follies,” Stinging Fly, November 2018
“Remembering the London 1938 Exhibition of German Modernism,” The Forward, fall 2018
“Paint It Black,” Berfrois, September 2018
“The Work of Art in the Age of Xerox Reproduction,” The New Inquiry, August 2018
“Mountains Between Us,” Even, summer 2018
“How the Rockefellers’ Art Dealer Forever Changed the Way the West Collects Asian Art,” Artnet, April 2018
“The Pleasure of Red,” The Threepenny Review, winter 2018 (Best American Essay Prize Notable Essay)
On LITERATURE
“Blog Editors’ Highlights: On Elfriede Jelinek, Thomas Bernhard, and Abedelfattah Kilito,” Asymptote, August 2022
“Lower-Caste Life in India Is Illustrated in a New Short-Story Collection,” Jacobin, June 2022
“Blog Editors’ Highlights: On Johannes Lilleøre, Goderdzi Chokheli, and Heinz Helle,” Asymptote, April 2022
“Table Talk: In Praise of Fragments,” The Threepenny Review, March 2022
“Dispatch from the Front Lines of World Literature: Uzbekistan,” Asymptote, March 2022
“Blog Editors’ Highlights: On Frederik Willem Daem, Stijn Devillé, and Jorge de Sena” Asymptote, January 2022
“Dispatch from the Front Lines of World Literature: Kazakhstan,” Asymptote, January 2022
“No Such Thing as Empty: John Cage: A Mycological Foray Reviewed,” The Threepenny Review, June 2021
“An Inventory of Losses Reviewed,” The Harvard Review, March 2021
“Bitter Water,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2021
“The Poet of Kyrgyzstan,” The Threepenny Review, November 2020
“Editor’s Note,” Hypocrite Reader, July 2020
“The Showings,” AGNI, July 2020
“Aliens and Alienation,” The Baffler, April 2020
“Ghosts among the Trees,” AGNI, November 2019
“The Strange Connection between Detective Fiction and Union Busting,” Electric Literature, July 2019
“How an 8th-Century Jewish Text Ended up in a Buddhist Cave Temple in China,” The Forward, July 2019
“Akin Yet Divided: W. G. Sebald and Lines of Sight,” The Times Literary Supplement, June 2019
“Overcoming Gutenberg,” The London Review of Books, May 2019
“Last Night in Nuuk Reviewed,” The Harvard Review, May 2019
“Czech Dissident Writers Can Teach Us How to Protect Language from Lies,” Electric Literature, March 2019
“‘Towards What?’: A Review of Olga Tokarczuk's Flights,” The Threepenny Review, March 2019
“Amos Oz and Description as Humanism,” Ploughshares Blog, February 2019
“Writing in Blood,” The Paris Review Daily, October 2018
“The Oldest Printed Book in the World,” The London Review of Books, October 2018
“Private Devotion: A Review of Gershom Scholem’s The View from Angelus,” The Threepenny Review, fall 2018
“Ode to the Library Museum,” The Paris Review Daily, July 2018
“The Main Character of Ulysses is Jewish, and That’s No Accident,” Electric Literature, June 2018
“Lines from Limbo,” Ploughshares Blog, February 2018
“Lower-Caste Life in India Is Illustrated in a New Short-Story Collection,” Jacobin, June 2022
“Blog Editors’ Highlights: On Johannes Lilleøre, Goderdzi Chokheli, and Heinz Helle,” Asymptote, April 2022
“Table Talk: In Praise of Fragments,” The Threepenny Review, March 2022
“Dispatch from the Front Lines of World Literature: Uzbekistan,” Asymptote, March 2022
“Blog Editors’ Highlights: On Frederik Willem Daem, Stijn Devillé, and Jorge de Sena” Asymptote, January 2022
“Dispatch from the Front Lines of World Literature: Kazakhstan,” Asymptote, January 2022
“No Such Thing as Empty: John Cage: A Mycological Foray Reviewed,” The Threepenny Review, June 2021
“An Inventory of Losses Reviewed,” The Harvard Review, March 2021
“Bitter Water,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2021
“The Poet of Kyrgyzstan,” The Threepenny Review, November 2020
“Editor’s Note,” Hypocrite Reader, July 2020
“The Showings,” AGNI, July 2020
“Aliens and Alienation,” The Baffler, April 2020
“Ghosts among the Trees,” AGNI, November 2019
“The Strange Connection between Detective Fiction and Union Busting,” Electric Literature, July 2019
“How an 8th-Century Jewish Text Ended up in a Buddhist Cave Temple in China,” The Forward, July 2019
“Akin Yet Divided: W. G. Sebald and Lines of Sight,” The Times Literary Supplement, June 2019
“Overcoming Gutenberg,” The London Review of Books, May 2019
“Last Night in Nuuk Reviewed,” The Harvard Review, May 2019
“Czech Dissident Writers Can Teach Us How to Protect Language from Lies,” Electric Literature, March 2019
“‘Towards What?’: A Review of Olga Tokarczuk's Flights,” The Threepenny Review, March 2019
“Amos Oz and Description as Humanism,” Ploughshares Blog, February 2019
“Writing in Blood,” The Paris Review Daily, October 2018
“The Oldest Printed Book in the World,” The London Review of Books, October 2018
“Private Devotion: A Review of Gershom Scholem’s The View from Angelus,” The Threepenny Review, fall 2018
“Ode to the Library Museum,” The Paris Review Daily, July 2018
“The Main Character of Ulysses is Jewish, and That’s No Accident,” Electric Literature, June 2018
“Lines from Limbo,” Ploughshares Blog, February 2018
On Central Asia
“This Veil of Smoke,” Boston Review, March 2021 (available as part of the Climate Action anthology)
“Delicate Matters: Borat & Central Asia in the Western Imagination,” The Los Angeles Review of Books, December 2020
“Where the Air Is Pure,” Current Affairs, October 2020
“You Can Heal Your Life,” Current Affairs, September 2020
“Dispatches from a Pandemic: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,” The Harvard Review, July 2020
“The Winners,” World Literature Today, July 2020
“I’m an American in Kyrgyzstan. The Travel Ban Has My US-Loving Students Despairing,” The Washington Post, February 2020
“Kyrgyzstan Launched Its First ‘Feminnale’ for Feminist Art. Then the Censors Arrived,” The Calvert Journal, December 2019
“Artists Call for Kyrgyz Minister’s Resignation in Wake of Censorship Scandal,” The Art Newspaper, December 2019
“Delicate Matters: Borat & Central Asia in the Western Imagination,” The Los Angeles Review of Books, December 2020
“Where the Air Is Pure,” Current Affairs, October 2020
“You Can Heal Your Life,” Current Affairs, September 2020
“Dispatches from a Pandemic: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,” The Harvard Review, July 2020
“The Winners,” World Literature Today, July 2020
“I’m an American in Kyrgyzstan. The Travel Ban Has My US-Loving Students Despairing,” The Washington Post, February 2020
“Kyrgyzstan Launched Its First ‘Feminnale’ for Feminist Art. Then the Censors Arrived,” The Calvert Journal, December 2019
“Artists Call for Kyrgyz Minister’s Resignation in Wake of Censorship Scandal,” The Art Newspaper, December 2019
On borders & IMMIGRATION
“Death of a Citizen,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2022
“Italy’s Green Fascists,” Jewish Currents, September 2019
“Britain Is No Stranger to Borders. Today, Almost All of Them Lie in Ruins,” The Washington Post, September 2019
“TV on the Border,” Current Affairs, September 2019
“Italy’s Green Fascists,” Jewish Currents, September 2019
“Britain Is No Stranger to Borders. Today, Almost All of Them Lie in Ruins,” The Washington Post, September 2019
“TV on the Border,” Current Affairs, September 2019
On cinema
“Memories of the Metaverse,” The New York Review of Books, June 2022
“Strange Coast,” The Threepenny Review, August 2020
“Lost and Found: Pirosmani,” Sight & Sound, July 2019
“Bollywood’s Jewish Superstars,” Jewish Renaissance, April 2019
“Desire Vessel,” Hazlitt, August 2018
“‘What Do You Do with Your Revolution?’ Rocky Road to Dublin Versus 1968 Ireland,” Sight & Sound, June 2018
“Strange Coast,” The Threepenny Review, August 2020
“Lost and Found: Pirosmani,” Sight & Sound, July 2019
“Bollywood’s Jewish Superstars,” Jewish Renaissance, April 2019
“Desire Vessel,” Hazlitt, August 2018
“‘What Do You Do with Your Revolution?’ Rocky Road to Dublin Versus 1968 Ireland,” Sight & Sound, June 2018
On science, the environment, & TECHNOLOGY
“Language Is Medicine,” Aeon, November 2023
“Women and the Cowpox Vaccine,” Lady Science, December 2021
“‘The Mark of the Beast’: Georgian Britain’s Anti-Vaxxer Movement,” The Public Domain Review, April 2021
“Lab Rats,” The Baffler, July 2020
“Zoo Stories,” Lady Science, June 2020
“Extinction Rebellion Has a Politics Problem,” Current Affairs, October 2019
“Hashtag Propaganda,” The Baffler, July 2019
“Blood in the Soil: Fascist Ideology and Italian Nature Conservation,” Lady Science, July 2019
“An American Lab Test Abroad,” The Baffler, May 2019 (igualmente disponible en español)
“What Will They Think of the Megadisasters to Come?” n+1, April 2019
“Do Women Have a Right to Die?” Lady Science, April 2019
“The Very Real Search for the Bible’s Mythical Manna,” Gastro Obscura, March 2019
“Specimen Days: Human Zoos at the 1904 World’s Fair,” The New Inquiry, February 2019
“Historians Are Using Facial Recognition Software to Identify People in Civil War Photographs,” Slate, November 2018
“‘500 Women Scientists’ Uses STEM in the Fight Against Trump,” Lady Science, October 2018
“Secularization Is Not Enough to Cure Ireland’s Toxic Treatment of Women,” Lady Science, August 2018
“Who by Fire,” Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel, July 2018
“Women and the Cowpox Vaccine,” Lady Science, December 2021
“‘The Mark of the Beast’: Georgian Britain’s Anti-Vaxxer Movement,” The Public Domain Review, April 2021
“Lab Rats,” The Baffler, July 2020
“Zoo Stories,” Lady Science, June 2020
“Extinction Rebellion Has a Politics Problem,” Current Affairs, October 2019
“Hashtag Propaganda,” The Baffler, July 2019
“Blood in the Soil: Fascist Ideology and Italian Nature Conservation,” Lady Science, July 2019
“An American Lab Test Abroad,” The Baffler, May 2019 (igualmente disponible en español)
“What Will They Think of the Megadisasters to Come?” n+1, April 2019
“Do Women Have a Right to Die?” Lady Science, April 2019
“The Very Real Search for the Bible’s Mythical Manna,” Gastro Obscura, March 2019
“Specimen Days: Human Zoos at the 1904 World’s Fair,” The New Inquiry, February 2019
“Historians Are Using Facial Recognition Software to Identify People in Civil War Photographs,” Slate, November 2018
“‘500 Women Scientists’ Uses STEM in the Fight Against Trump,” Lady Science, October 2018
“Secularization Is Not Enough to Cure Ireland’s Toxic Treatment of Women,” Lady Science, August 2018
“Who by Fire,” Los Angeles Review of Books China Channel, July 2018
On Social Housing
“City of the Mute,” Hazlitt, October 2019
“The ‘Parasitic’ Homes That Could Change Cities,” the BBC, September 2019
“There Are Some Fires That Get Put out, and Some That Don’t,” n+1, June 2019
“The ‘Parasitic’ Homes That Could Change Cities,” the BBC, September 2019
“There Are Some Fires That Get Put out, and Some That Don’t,” n+1, June 2019
Other nonfiction
“Everything Is Open,” Hazlitt, April 2023
“Cruel and Unusual Nourishment,” The Baffler, July 2022
“Blackness and the Bomb,” Boston Review, June 2021
“The Other Nuremberg Trials, Seventy-Five Years On,” The Boston Review, March 2021
“Sun of All Suns,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2021
“The Past and Future of the Socialist Sunday School,” Current Affairs, August 2020
“Indigenous Activists Are Reimagining Language Preservation Under Quarantine,” Slate, August 2020
“Table Talk: The Ouse and the Foss,” The Threepenny Review, December 2019
“If Ye Break Faith,” Current Affairs, June 2019
“Four Bloody Fingers,” Hazlitt, February 2019
“Hidden Figures: The Importance of Remembering Black Classicists,” The Guardian, June 2018
“Why the Pregnant Pause? Women in Performing Arts Still Face Baby Barriers,” The Guardian, May 2018
“Cruel and Unusual Nourishment,” The Baffler, July 2022
“Blackness and the Bomb,” Boston Review, June 2021
“The Other Nuremberg Trials, Seventy-Five Years On,” The Boston Review, March 2021
“Sun of All Suns,” Hypocrite Reader, January 2021
“The Past and Future of the Socialist Sunday School,” Current Affairs, August 2020
“Indigenous Activists Are Reimagining Language Preservation Under Quarantine,” Slate, August 2020
“Table Talk: The Ouse and the Foss,” The Threepenny Review, December 2019
“If Ye Break Faith,” Current Affairs, June 2019
“Four Bloody Fingers,” Hazlitt, February 2019
“Hidden Figures: The Importance of Remembering Black Classicists,” The Guardian, June 2018
“Why the Pregnant Pause? Women in Performing Arts Still Face Baby Barriers,” The Guardian, May 2018
Fiction
“To Kill a Horse,” Guernica, August 2022
“Have You No Home to Go to,” The Harvard Review, summer 2018 (Pushcart Prize Special Mention)
“Monday’s Child,” Little Star Journal, Issue 7, 2018
“The View from the Necropolis,” Salamander, fall/winter 2017/2018
“The Floating World,” Pleiades, winter 2017
“Receive Us Every One,” Salamander, fall/winter 2016/2017 (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“Elephant Man,” The Atticus Review, March 2016
“Second Eden,” Salamander, fall/winter 2015/2016 (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“Collaboration Horizontale,” Buffalo Almanack, September 2015 (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“The Shipping Forecast,” Lumen, September 2015
“Love on the Installment Plan,” The Harvard Advocate, summer 2015
“True North,” Nivalis 2015 Anthology, summer 2015
“Have You No Home to Go to,” The Harvard Review, summer 2018 (Pushcart Prize Special Mention)
“Monday’s Child,” Little Star Journal, Issue 7, 2018
“The View from the Necropolis,” Salamander, fall/winter 2017/2018
“The Floating World,” Pleiades, winter 2017
“Receive Us Every One,” Salamander, fall/winter 2016/2017 (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“Elephant Man,” The Atticus Review, March 2016
“Second Eden,” Salamander, fall/winter 2015/2016 (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“Collaboration Horizontale,” Buffalo Almanack, September 2015 (Pushcart Prize nominee)
“The Shipping Forecast,” Lumen, September 2015
“Love on the Installment Plan,” The Harvard Advocate, summer 2015
“True North,” Nivalis 2015 Anthology, summer 2015
Audio Interviews
“The Segregated Apocalypse,” an interview with What a Hell of a Way to Die on an essay for Boston Review (Patreon-only, partial teaser here)
“Nazi Profit and Post-War Capital,” an interview with This Is Hell! on an essay for Boston Review
“Erica X Eisen on Socialist Sunday School,” an interview with Debate Me, Coward! on an essay for Current Affairs
“Nazi Profit and Post-War Capital,” an interview with This Is Hell! on an essay for Boston Review
“Erica X Eisen on Socialist Sunday School,” an interview with Debate Me, Coward! on an essay for Current Affairs