Books:
Everything Else Is Bric-a-Brac Princeton Architectural Press, 2022
How to Disappear: notes on invisibility in a time of transparency. Penguin Press, 2019
The Incidental Steward: Reflections on Citizen Science. Yale University Press, 2013 (paperback edition, 2014)
Patience: Taking Time in an Age of Acceleration. Sterling Books, 2010
Nine Ways to Cross a River: Midstream Reflections on Swimming and Getting There from Here. Bloomsbury U.S.A, 2007
The Uncommon Lives of Common Objects: Essays on Design and the Everyday. Metropolis Books/D.A.P, 2004
Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999
Rooftop Architecture: The Art of Going through the Roof, Henry Holt and Company, 1991
The Photography of Architecture: Twelve Views, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1987
Books (as editor):
Szenasy, Design Advocate, Metropolis Books, 2014
At Water’s Edge, (chapbook of student essays), School of Visual Arts, 2011
Fresh Dialogues 3, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004
Design Is: Words, Things, People, Buildings, Places, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002
Design for Sports, Princeton Architectural Press, 1998
Catalog Essays:
Held, “Kim Cridler,” The Metal Museum, Fall, 2021
In/Animate: Recent Work by Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, “Domestic Disruptions,” Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY, New Paltz, 2016
Ezra Stoller: Photographer, “Capturing House and Home,” 2012
Lives of the Hudson, “Reading the River,” The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, 2009
Objects for Use: Handmade by Design, “Perspectives on Craft and Design,” American Craft Museum, 2001
Let’s Entertain: Life’s Guilty Pleasures, “Branding, Bar Codes, and Other Assorted End Credits,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2000
Design for Sports: The Cult of Performance, “The Athlete Relocated,” Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1998
Turn of the Century Home, “Geography of Home,” University of Chicago, 1994
For the Floor, “The World at our Feet,” American Craft Museum, 1985
Pattern, “A Branch of Lilacs, A Blue Stripe: pattern in surface decoration,” American Craft Museum, 1982
Anthologies:
Water’s Edge: writing on water, Northwestern University Press, 2022
Visualizing Nature: essays on truth, spirit, and philosophy, Princeton Architectural Press, 2021
Then Again: vintage photographs reimagined by one artist and thirty-one writers, Laura Christensen, Winglet Books, 2019
This is the Place: women writing about home, Seal Press/Da Capo, 2017
Magazines:
I was a contributing editor at Metropolis magazine for 20 years, and have written regular columns for Metropolis, American Craft, The New York Times Regional Section, and House & Garden. My essays and articles have also appeared in The Atlantic, Architectural Record, Dwell, ID, Metropolitan Home, Harvard Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, London Financial Times, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Orion, Traditional Home, Travel & Leisure, TriQuarterly, and Wallpaper*, among other publications.
Blog:
Regular blog for Next Avenue, a national public media website launched by PBS stations in 2012.
Podcasts:
The Shape of the World with Jill Ridell, May, 2020
Secret Library with Carolyn Donahue, March, 2019
Spirituality and Health: Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami, April 2019
Radio:
The Roundtable with Joe Donahue, WAMC, Fall, 2022
Conversation with Tara Henley, Toronto Public Library, Spring, 2021
Conversations with Dan Skinner, Kansas Public Radio, Summer, 2020
The Book Show with Joe Donahue, WAMC, Winter, 2019
The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, New York, NY, Spring, 2019
The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, New York, NY, Summer, 2007
Design for the Real World, Studio 360, (assorted segments), PRI, 2004-2005
Clearwater Moments (ten segments), WNYC Albany, Fall, 2008
Teaching Experience:
Bennington College: Visiting teacher, Spring 2008 and Fall, 2014 to Fall, 2020
School of the Visual Arts, MA Program in Design Research: “Reading Design,” 2009 to 2020
The Writing Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, 2015
University of Hartford: Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair for the Visual Arts at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, “The Design of Desire,” Fall, 2005
Lectures and Workshops (selected):
The Small School, Artspace, “Invisible Ink,” Raleigh, NC, Spring, 2023
92nd Street Y, “Philosophy in Hard Times: conversations with John Kaag,” Via Zoom, Summer, 2020
Mass MoCA, “Gaining Ground: eight impressions of the work of Rafa Esparza,” North Adams, MA, Fall, 2019
Oakland University, “Invisible Ink,” Rochester, MI, Spring, 2019
TED Talk, “The Power of Invisibility,” Mumbai, India, Fall, 2019
The Katonah Museum, “Stories of Home,” Katonah, NY, Spring, 2015
Brown University, “Writing on Water: waterways and shorelines,” Providence RI, Spring 2018
The School of Visual Arts, Keynote, “Notes on Being a Generalist,” Spring, 2017
Providence Athenaeum, “Writing Nature,” Fall, 2016
Pacific Northwest College of Art, “Notes on Fit,” Spring, 2015
Bennington College, “Notes on The Incidental Steward,” Fall, 2014
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, “Living on the Edge,” Fall, 2014
Parsons The New School for Design: Aftertaste, “Objects and Language,” Winter 2013
The School of Visual Arts, “Assorted Notes on Fit,” Fall, 2013
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, “Reflections on Citizen Science,” Spring, 2013
Hollins University, “The Written and the Made,” Summer, 2012
Bennington College, “River of Words,” Spring 2012
Cleveland Institute of Art, “Objects as Presence,” Fall, 2011
AIGA Design Conference: Pivot, “Designing Fiction,” Fall, 2011
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, “The Language of Craft,” Summer, 2008
Moravian College, “Landscape and Personal Narrative,” Fall, 2008
Utah State University, “Landscape and Personal Narrative,” Fall, 2007
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, “Gender and Design at Work,” Spring, 1994
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, “Geography of Home,” Winter, 1994
Readings (selected):
The Rosendale Theater, Rosendale, NY, Spring, 2024
The Golden Notebook, Woodstock, NY, Fall, 2022
Woodstock Bookfest, Woodstock, NY, Spring, 2019
The Millbrook Book Festival, Millbrook, NY, Spring, 2019
The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, Spring, 2019
The Hillsdale Library, Hillsdale, NY, Fall, 2019
Oblong Books, Rhinebeck, NY, Winter, 2019
Northshire Books, Saratoga NY, Fall 2017
Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY/New Paltz, Fall 2017
Hudson Valley Writers Resist, Rosendale, NY, Spring 2017
Clermont Cottage, Clermont State Historic Site, Summer, 2015
Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Summer, 2013
The Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries, Beacon, NY, Spring, 2010
The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, Tarrytown, NY, Spring, 2010
Maple Grove Summer Reading Program, Summer, 2010
Oblong Books, Rhinebeck, NY, Fall, 2010
Tivoli Bays Visitors Center, Spring, 2009
The Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY, Spring 2008
KGB Bar, New York, NY, Spring, 2008
Nashua River Watershed Association, Groton, MA, Fall, 2008
The City Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Fall, 2007
Barnes and Noble, New York, NY, Fall, 2002
National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., Spring, 1996
National Institute for Architectural Education, New York, NY, Winter, 1993
Foundations:
New York Foundation for the Arts, Grant in Literary Nonfiction, 2011
Furthermore Foundation Grant, 2011
Residencies:
Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide, Italy, Summer, 2013
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, Spring, 2011
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, Summer, 2009
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Literature, Bennington College, 1976