Short Stories in Periodicals

“Mr. Jenny Perdido.” Pank Magazine. Vol. 9 (2013): pp. 34-39

“The Jersey Devil.” North American Review 295:4 (Fall 2010): 7-12.

“YOUR BOOK: A Novel in Stories.” Ninth Letter 6:2 (Winter 2010): 129-139.

Genesis.Freight Stories 3:3 (September 2008): online.

“The King and His Court.” River Styx Vol. 66 (2003): 85-104.

“The Last Member of the Boela Tribe.” Antioch Review 61.4 (Fall 2003): 598-619.

“Jennie Dixianna and the Spin of Death.” Shenandoah 52:1 (Spring 2002): 98-111.

“Wallace Porter Sees the Elephant.” Southern Review 37:1 (Winter 2001): 107-120.

“Boats.” The Distillery: Artistic Spirits of the South. 7:1 (Winter 2000): 45-48.

“Strike Stew.” Cream City Review 23.2 (Spring 1999): 70-73.

The Girl with Big Hair.” Gettysburg Review 12:2 (Summer 1999): 251-261.

“The Circus House.” Story (Winter 1999): 21-31.

“Leon’s Daughter.” Florida Review 21:2 (1996): 88-98.

“Hospice.” Quarterly West. 41 (Autumn/Winter 1995): 6-7.

Short Stories Reprinted in Anthologies

“YOUR BOOK: A novel in stories.” Indy Writes Books: A Book Lover’s Anthology. (reprint) Ed. Travis DiNicola. Indy Writes Books, 2014.

“Genesis: or, The Day Adam Killed the Snakes.” Metawritings: Toward a Theory of Nonfiction. (reprint) Ed. Jill Talbot. University of Iowa Press, 2011.

“The Circus House.” New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 2000. (reprint)Ed. Shannon Ravenel. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2000: 228-242.

“Boss Man.” American Fiction, Volume Ten. Ed. Alan Davis and Michael White. Judges–Robert Boswell and Antonya Nelson. New Rivers Press, 1999: 34-50.

“Mississinewa.” Walking on Water. Ed. Allen Wier. University of Alabama Press, 1996: 57-63.

Nonfiction in Journals and Magazines

“They Found a Meth Lab in Cole Porter’s Childhood Home and Other Tales of Those Who Dared to Leave Indiana.” (essay) The Literary Hub (June 19, 2016): online.

The Magic Building Where English Majors Work.” (essay) The Millions (September 10, 2014): online.

“Advice for professors on starting over at a new college.” (essay) Inside Higher Education (Aug. 15 & Aug. 18, 2014): online.

A Town is a Mask.” (essay) The LitMap Project (October 4, 2013): online.

First You Must Love Sentences.” (essay) in Necessary Fiction (May 13, 2013): online.

The 100-Year Flood.” (essay) in Punchnel’s (March 22, 2013): online.

“Reverse Storyboarding.” Writer’s Ask newsletter, Glimmer Train Press. Issue 57 (Fall 2012): 16.

Literary Citzenship.” (essay) posted on “The Bird Sisters,” a blog by Rebecca Rasmussen (March 9, 2011): online.

“A Zetabet of Creative Writing Theory and Pedagogy.” (co-authored by Cathy Day, Anna Leahy, and Stephanie Vanderslice) The Toad Suck Review. 1 (2011): 124-128.

Where Are We Going Next? A Conversation about Creative Writing Pedagogy.” (co-authored essay) in Fiction Writer’s Review (February 10, 2011): online.

The Story Problem: 10 Thoughts on Academia’s Novel Crisis.” (essay) in The Millions (January 2011): online.

The Story Problem: 10 reflexiones sobre la crisis de la novella en la universidad estadounidense.” (translation/reprint) Hermano Cerdo. (March 2011): online.

Home Game.” (Comeback Season excerpt reprint) in Indianapolis Monthly (February 2008): 108-111.

For Love and the Colts.” (essay) Sports Illustrated (February 5, 2008): online.

“Believe?”(essay) Indy Men’s Magazine (September 2006): 42-44, 52-53.

Pig Boy’s Wicked Bird: A Memoir.” (essay/review) Post Road Vol. 11 (2006): 107-109.

Back Home Again in Indiana (By Way of Winesburg,Ohio).” (essay) Amazon.com’s “Writers Under the Influence” feature (Fall 2004): online.

“The Greatest Place on Earth.” (essay) Neiman Marcus magazine The Book No. 79 (September 2004): 222-229.

“Slogging Through the Muck of the American Id.” (essay/review) The Gettysburg Review 12:4 (Winter 1999): 595-610.

How I Came West and Why I Stayed by Alison Baker. (book review) The Black Warrior Review 21:1 (Fall/Winter 1994): 165-168.

Nonfiction in Anthologies or Books

“Our Town: Teaching Creative Writing Students to Love Research and Collaboration.” (chapter) Creative Writing Innovations: Breaking Boundaries in the Classroom. Ed. Michael Dean Clark, Trent Hergenrader, Joseph Rein. Bloomsbury Academic (New York, NY). forthcoming.

“Where Are We Going in Creative Writing Pedagogy?” (reprint, co-authored by Cathy Day, Anna Leahy, and Stephanie Vanderslice). What We Talk About When We Talk about Creative Writing. Ed. Anna Leahy. Multilingual Matters (Toronto). 2016: 21-37.

Where Are We Going Next? A Conversation about Creative Writing Pedagogy.” (reprint, co-authored by Cathy Day, Anna Leahy, and Stephanie Vanderslice). National Writing Project (2011): online and pdf. In July 2011, the National Writing Project contacted us to secure permission to republish our conversation on its website.

“Against the Odds.” (Comeback Season excerpt reprint) in Creative Nonfiction‘s anthology, “Pittsburgh in Words” (2008): online.

“Where Do You Want Me to Sit?” Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom: The Authority Project. Ed. Anna Leahy. Multilingual Matters Ltd. (Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto). 2005: 155-166.

Options and Adaptations

The Circus in Winter, optioned for musical theater by the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, in development. Follow the story here.

The Lone Star Cowboy” (short story from The Circus in Winter) optioned and produced by independent filmmaker, Alexander Georgakis, Los Angeles, CA.