The Washington Post
April 2023
as “How to defend against the rise of ChatGPT? Think like a poet.”
The Washington Post
September 2021
as “From 9/11 to covid-19, I have seen how terror leads to fear, and fear to hatred”
The Best American Essays 2021
August 2021
Color Coded
(listed as notable)
A Measure of Belonging:
21 Writers of Color on the New South
October 2020
Foreign & Domestic
The Paris Review
June 2020
Chicago Quarterly Review
June 2020
My People
The Believer
April 2019
Eradicating America
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
August 2018
Evening Will Come
April 2017
Power, Politics, and the Political Poem
Poetry Foundation dot org
May 2016
Color Coded:
on the poetics of Donald Trump, the progress of poetry, and reverse racism
Poetry Foundation dot org
November 2014
The Writing Class:
on privilege, the AWP-industrial complex, and why poetry doesn’t seem to matter
Francis Jammes: On the Life & Work of a Modern Master
Pleiades Press | June 2014
An Invisible Hand: on Francis Jammes
The Fanzine
August 2013
The State
May 2013
Jaswinder Bolina Goes to White Castle
The State
March 2013
The Brown Apple
Himal Southasian
February 2013
Tribe
The State
March 2012
Empathy for the Devil
Poetry Foundation dot org
November 2011
Evening Will Come
October 2011
On Tony Hoagland and Claudia Rankine
Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook
October 2010
What I Tell Them
Other Legacies
Expected 2026
The Washington Post
February 2024
as “Who’s getting the job done in American baseball? Immigrants”
The Washington Post
June 2023
as “What a dad wearing a brash hat taught me about fear and fatherhood”
One Small Blow Against Encroaching Totalitarianism
McSweeney’s | March 2019
(in reprint)
The Force of What’s Possible
Nightboat Books | December 2014
(in reprint)
Pleiades
March 2014
The Devil’s in the Diction: on Richard Smith
The Huffington Post
November 2011
Writing Like a White Guy
Unlinked essays are available in print only. Some outlets listed here are no longer active.
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