Yikes—you’ve reached an older version of my Other Writing page! There’s a much newer one on my author website, here.
Eikaiwa Bums Chapbook
Eikawa Bums is my short story chapbook from Blue Cubicle Press’s Overtime series, about the social pressures and dating woes faced by foreign teachers at an English conversation school in Japan.
Order a hard copy or download a PDF from Blue Cubicle Press
Order a signed copy from my webstore
Concord New Hampshire Writers’ Project Anthologies
I served as series editor of these two anthologies of short fiction, poetry, and essays for the New Hampshire Writer’s Project by writers from the Concord, NH area. They’re FREE to read as a PDF or eBook, and both include work by yours truly.
2019 Concord Writer’s Night Out Anthology
Featuring my photo essay, The Tetrapods
Download as a PDF (free!)
Download as an eBook (free!)
Purchase a hard copy from the publisher
2018 Concord Writer’s Night Out Anthology
Featuring my short fiction piece, Rejection.
Download as a PDF (free!)
Download as an eBook (free!)
Purchase a hard copy from the publisher or a signed copy from my webstore
The TRAM – Toyama’s Random-Ass Magazine
In April 2019 I took on the co-editor role for the TRAM, a local art and culture zine for the English-speaking community in Toyama, Japan. We publish four issues a year featuring articles on Japanese culture, local business reviews, fiction, visual art, poetry, and whatever random-ass stuff we feel like. It’s free to read online, though I can hook you up with a hard copy if you’re interested ;-)
I also write a TRAM column called Let’s Talk About Japan Books! where I review and discuss Japanese literature and Japan-related nonfiction:
- My Top 5 Haruki Murakami Reads (Fall 2019)
- Translations by Donald Keene (1922-2019) (Summer 2019)
- A Double Dose of Ruth (Spring 2019)
Around the Net
Some of my other writing.
Painting’s Just My Day Job – How working as a housepainter helped me develop better writing habits. From Four Ties Literary Review.
Why I Worked Unpaid Overtime for Two Years – Article about one of my worst Day Job experiences, for The Billfold on Medium.com.
Just Before the Sakura-jima Eruption – Short travel piece about my trip to the Sakura-jima volcano, one of the most active in Japan. From the Stone Bridge Press literary blog.
Apples Are Grown in Aomori – Photo essay about my trip to northern Japan, published in Eastlit.
Leaked Literature: Why We Should Respect Salinger’s Wishes – Essay about the 2014 bootleg J.D. Salinger manuscript and how the author shaped Holden Caulfield before The Catcher in the Rye. From The Millions.
From The Charleston Anvil art and lit mag (available in hard copy only):
- I Got Yelled at in the Books-A-Million Cafe for Reading a Sex Scene (Issue 4) – The title says it all.
- On the Rationality of Couplehood (Issue 3) – Some brief thoughts about relationships.
- Blissful Ignorance, Namelessness, and the Cigarette Smoking Man From The X-Files (Issue 2) – How reluctant we are to accept things we don’t want to hear.
- One Nation, Indivisible (Issue 1) – Short story about a telemarketing call gone awry.
Podcasts & Sound Recordings
Adjunct Crisis: Labor Issues in Higher Education – Podcast co-produced with Jason Hertz, talking with adjunct professor Chris Small about working conditions in academia. For the University of Nebraska Watershed series.
How Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Changed My Life – I read my essay for The Drunken Odyssey’s Books That Changed My Life series.
My (Old) Blogs
The Stack of Books Next to My Bed – My book review blog from the early days of this website, kept from 2016 to 2018. I read an average of one book a week for two years and reviewed each one in 99 words or less.
A Wave of the Hand – My first blog of offbeat nonfiction, straight-up fiction, and miscellaneous reflections, kept from 2007 to 2016. Here’s a few favorite entries:
- Why I Hate Being Called Buddy – I explain one of my biggest pet peeves by using a scene from Better Off Dead.
- Fuck Your Impractical Hipster Room Decorations – Why hipster room decorating culture annoys me, with examples from the Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table blog.
- When the Market Basket Workers Fight Back, Everyone Wins – How the 2014 Market Basket grocery store strike represents a struggle for a better workplace.
- A Response to Chick-fil-A Employees Saying “My Pleasure” Instead of “You’re Welcome – Reflections on the standardization of chain restaurants to the point where they regulate their employees’ word choices.