short stuff

Assorted short nonfiction

[MY COMMENTARIES FOR NPR’S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED CAN BE FOUND HERE]

THE END (2021, on Columbia University’s The Line Literary Review) “Christian Bauman spent a decade in a sprint between publishing three respected novels and staying ahead of his demons. The demons won.” Short nonfiction on writing and publishing; drinking and not drinking; and trying not to kill people.

GABE HUDSON & THE LOST SOLDIERS OF GENERATION X (2023, on IdentityTheory.com) A brief essay on learning of the death of my friend, fellow-writer, fellow-veteran Gabe Hudson, what it means to be a soldier/writer, and how Gabe pulled me back to safety.

OUR FATHER (2009, on IdentityTheory.com) Essay got a notable mention in 2010 Best American Nonrequired Reading collection edited by David Sedaris and Dave Eggers. Here's a description of the essay from The New York Times ArtsBeat Blog, March 4, 2009, by Gregory Cowles: At Identity Theory, “Our Father,” an essay in which Christian Bauman discusses his dad’s strange resemblance to a former New York Times reporter and tries to come to terms with the real reason his father went to jail in the late 1970s. It’s an odd, circuitous, very personal little essay, as much about war and publishing as it is about fathers and sons, and it gets pretty gripping as it goes along.

NOT FADE AWAY (2004, on IdentityTheory.com, originally published in the anthology Bookmark Now edited by Kevin Smokler, a collection of essays on reading and writing; other contributors included Nell Fruedenberger, Meghan Daum, Tracy Chevalier, among others.) This essay is a greatly expanded version of "Reading Hemingway in Somalia," a commentary for NPR. Goes on from the original opening to discuss reading, writing, and seeing how well you can dance.

THE ROAD TO YOUNTVILLE; OR, CONFESSIONS OF A COMMON EATER (2004, on IdentityTheory.com) A series of unfortunate and gross events related to dining at the French Laundry, one of the world's greatest restaurants, on the occasion of my 30th birthday.

LIVING WITH MUSIC (2009, at The New York Times) A playlist/essay based on some of the folks whose paths I crossed while playing guitar in the 1990s.

THANK YOU FOR WELCOMING ME HOME (2021, at IdentityTheory.com) In which I make a few observations about Desert Storm (America’s favorite mistake) and offer a linguistic alternative inspired by veterans of the Vietnam War.