Books
LO QUE CUENTA EL VECINO
Editor. Lo que cuenta el vecino: cuentos contemporáneos de los Estados Unidos. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNUM: Mexico City, 2008).
A bilingual anthology of contemporary U.S. short fiction. Includes works by Robert Olen Butler, Tobias Wolff, Tim O'Brien, Ron Hansen, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Leslie Marmon Silko, Edward P. Jones, Jayne Anne Phillips, Sandra Cisneros, Jen Gish, Susan Minot, Lorrie Moore, Jill McCorkle, Jonathan Lethem, and Sherman Alexie.
Introduced and selected by Jon Parrish Peede, with a preface by Dana Gioia. Editorial coordinator of Mexican translators, Álvaro Uribe.
"Highly recommended" --CHOICE
"Perhaps the highest compliment that can be paid to [Inside the Church of Flannery O'Connor] is that it makes one want to reread O'Connor immediately." --IMAGE
INSIDE THE CHURCH
OF FLANNERY O'CONNOR
Co-editor with Joanne Halleran McMullen. Inside the Church of Flannery O'Connor: Sacrament, Sacremental, and the Sacred in Her Fiction (Mercer UP: Macon, 2007).
This book offers significant new essays by leading scholars who have advanced the codification of O’Connor as a writer preoccupied with religious, and especially Catholic, themes. In counterbalance, the collection presents voices at odds with O’Connor’s own interpretations and with much of the existing scholarship concerning her work. Other contributors explore theological, philosophical, and scholarly issues completely outside this dichotomy, such as comparative literature and the influence of consumer culture on her writing.
Selected Writing
Articles, Book Reviews, Cultural Criticism, Journalism, and Occasional Prose
“Cecil J. Williams: Civil Rights Chronicler,” Humanities, Winter 2019.
“The Unopened Letter,” 2018 National Humanities Conference, 11/8/2018.
“From King Tut to Madame John’s Legacy, NEH leaves its mark on Louisiana,” Times-Picayune, 11/8/2018.
“A Sense of Place: Honoring Eudora Welty,” Clarion-Ledger, 9/9/2018.
“The Humanities in Relationship,” 2017 National Humanities Conference, 11/4/2017.
"Claudia Emerson and the Natural World,” Virginia Quarterly Review, online, 12/8/2014.
"The Past Is Not Even Past," Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 2013.
“Counting Women,” Virginia Quarterly Review, Fall 2012.
“Awaiting News at the Dock: The Value of Literature in Translation.” Essay in Taking Flight: New Thinking on World Writing, Global Translation Initiative, English PEN, (London: 9/30/11), 31-32.
“Literature,” coauthored with Amy Stolls. Article in Bauerlein, Mark, ed. National Endowment for the Arts: A History, 1965—2008. (NEA: Washington, DC, 2008), 185-195.
Reader guide coauthored with David Kipen, Erika Koss, and Dan Stone. NEA Big Read: Reader Resources: The Great Gatsby. NEA, 2006.
"The Power of Story," NEAarts, NEA, Vol. 4 / 2006.
“Letter to the Editor,” Poetry Magazine, 10/30/2005.
“Primatologist Jane Goodall draws sellout crowd for Millsaps lecture.” Coauthored with John Webb. The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger. 4/9/2003.
“Mr. Tate in the Emperor’s Clothes.” Review of Thomas A. Underwood’s Allen Tate: Orphan of the South. Modern Age: A Quarterly Review. Fall 2001: 330-335.
“Small-Town Stories.” Review of Robert Drake’s The Picture Frame and Other Stories. Vanderbilt Magazine. Fall 2001.
“A Splendid Irreverence: Ellen Gilchrist.” Millsaps Magazine. Fall-winter 2000.
“William Goyen.” Essay. The Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1998. Reprinted: The Encyclopedia of World Literature. St. James Press (London), 1999.
"Eternal Hope: Breakfast with John Hope Franklin." Millsaps Magazine. Spring-Summer 1999.
“Welty at Millsaps.” Millsaps Magazine. Spring-Summer 1999.
“All the Kings: Essay Review of Biographies of Robert Penn Warren and William Styron.” Modern Age: A Quarterly Review. Summer 1999: 272-275.
“Beth Henley.” Essay. The Encyclopedia of American Literature. Continuum, 1998.
“Visions of American Girlhood Sifted: Crane’s Maggie and Gibbons’ Ellen Foster.” Essay. Humanities in the South, 1999. Presented as lecture: Southern Women Writers Conference, Berry College, 1996.
“A River Runs through Yellowstone.” Millsaps Magazine, Fall 1998. Special Merit Award, Feature Writing, CASE District III Awards, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, 1999. Reprinted: The Tracker: A Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies Publication. Fall/Winter 1998
“Robert Drake’s North-South Axis.” Essay. Chattachoochee Review. Summer 1997.
“Brown’s On Fire a Powerful Nonfiction Debut.” Review of Larry Brown’s On Fire. SouthVine. 2/16/94.
“Return of the Good Ole Boy.” Review of Willie Morris’s New York Days. SouthVine. 10/93.
“Beauty Is Harsh: An Interview with Donna Tartt.” SouthVine. 9/28/93.
“Mississippi Delta Blues Festival.” SouthVine. 9/28/93.
“Hannah’s Characters Have Familiar Faces.” Review of Barry Hannah’s Bats Out of Hell. SouthVine. 9/93.
“Seeing the Light: the Glennray Tutor Exhibit,” Southvine, 08/4/93.
“An Interview with Barry Hannah.” SouthVine. 4/93.
“Book on Welty Provides Insight.” Review of Michael Kreyling’s Author and Agent: Eudora Welty and Diarmuid Russell. Daily Mississippian. 6/24/91.
[Untitled.] Review of Willie Morris’s Faulkner’s Mississippi. Versus. 3/91