If I were to redesign heaven, I’d lose the streets of gold and we would all sit around a fire telling stories. Here’s the best of what I’ve written in the past fifteen years. My recent work has improved over earlier stuff. Although I write some fiction, my passion and focus are in creative nonfiction. (What is creative nonfiction?)
I read the way an alcoholic drinks. Among the people I read and admire are: John McPhee, Melissa Fay Greene (for creative nonfiction set in Georgia, her Praying for Sheetrock is far better than the bestselling Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), Jonathan Raban, James Galvin, Bill Bryson, E.B. White, James Thurber, Susan Orlean, Joseph Mitchell, Annie Proulx, Ian Frazier, Oliver Sacks, Studs Terkel, Tobias Wolff (the list goes on interminably).