Essays

I write about storytelling (in any medium), the craft of writing, religion, politics, culture, and history. Scroll down my list. You might find something that you like!

“Perfect Empathy: Deep Space Nine and the Most Fantastical Concept in All Fiction.” OnlySky. 28 December 2022.

“Blaming the Victims: Revisiting One of the Lowest Moments of Francis’s Papacy.” OnlySky. 28 October 2022.

“After Roe: 3 Troubling Trends from the ‘Compassionate’ Anti-Abortion Crowd.” Religion Dispatches. 20 September 2022.

“The January 6th hearings demonstrate how to move forward when dialogue is impossible.” Flux. 22 July 2022.

“The Brilliant Ambiguity of Conan the Barbarian‘s ‘Riddle of Steel.'” Tor.com. 11 May 2022.

“The best novels about animals becoming sentient.” Shepherd. 9 May 2022.

“Churches Shouldn’t Automatically Get Tax Exemptions.” Sojourners. 15 April 2022.

“Beyond the Beatles: George Harrison’s Unexpected Connections to SFF.” Tor.com. 6 December 2021.

“Six Bizarro Made-for-TV Movies that Actually Exist, Somehow.” Tor.com. 16 November 2021.

“So You Want to Write an Article that Deflects All Blame from Christianity: A Handy Guide.” Religion Dispatches. 3 November 2021.

“A pre-9/11 action film with a Muslim hero shows what could have been.” OUP blog. 30 October 2021.

“What Makes John Carpenter’s The Thing So Effing Scary?” Tor.com. 13 October 2021.

“Bad People Who Are Christians Are Still Christians, No Matter How That Makes Other Christians Feel.” Flux. 12 September 2021.

“Robert Repino’s Playlist for His Novel Malefactor.” Largehearted Boy. 1 September 2021.

“Consequences as an Engine of Storytelling: A Guest Post by Robert Repino.” File 770. 31 August 2021.

“Behind the Book: Malefactor—Survival of the Fittest.” Bookpage. 31 August 2021.

“The Real Delaware County Is Nothing Like Mare of Easttown.” Slate. 27 May 2021.

“Heroic Teddy Bears & Movie Magic: 5 Fun Facts about Spark and the League of Ursus.” YAYOMG! 23 March 2021.

“Good Places, Uploads, and Reimagining the Afterlife in Popular Culture.” The Revealer. 9 March 2021.

“Empathy Machines: Nine Deeply Humanist Science Fiction Films.” Tor.com. 18 June 2020.

“What Mister Rogers Can Teach Us About Storytelling.” Tor.com. 9 May 2018.

“Sex, Love, and Humanism: Reimagining Religion in #gods”. Tor.com. 11 September 2017.

“Blue Thunder Is Watching You: Advanced Tech Meets Cold War Paranoia.” Tor.com. 3 August 2017.

“What Beavers Can Teach Us About Hope, Resilience, and the End of the World.” Tor.com. 26 May 2017.

“‘Stick Around’: A Schwarzenegger Guide for the Uninitiated.” Tor.com. 22 May 2017.

Defending Your Life as a Philosophy of Life.” Tor.com. 30 November 2016.

“Harry Dean Stanton and the Art of the Everyman.” Tor.com. 8 November 2016.

The Day After and The Fire Next Time: Lessons in Big Message Storytelling.” Tor.com. September 2016.

“The Fantastic Voyage of Innerspace.” Tor.com. 17 August 2016.

“Showing, Telling, and the Limits of Adaptation: An Orwellian Case Study.” Tor.com. 14 July 2016.

“Why is Westeros So F%cked Up?” Tor.com. 26 April 2016..

“Science Fiction and the Defiant Weirdness of Queen.” Tor.com. 19 April 2016.

“W.E.B. Du Bois and the Literature of Upheaval.” OUP blog. 29 February 2016.

“Now Is the Perfect Time for a New Star Trek.Tor.com. 18 November 2015.

“Words of encouragement, unsolicited advice, and a few reservations about starting a novel for NaNoWriMo.” OxfordWords 4 November 2015.

“With Luck We Shall Make It, and Without Luck We Shall Not.” Tor.com. 12 January 2015.

“An interview with Mohsin Hamid.” OUP blog. 30 November 2013..

“Blaxploitation, from Shaft to Django.” OUP blog. 3 June 2013.

“Understanding the Muslim World.” OUP blog. 10 April 2013.

“African Americans at the Olympic Games.” OUP blog.  11 August 2012.

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