Welcome. By way of a very brief introduction, I’m an American author whose fiction, essays, and cultural criticism have been published widely, and who is the recipient of various literary prizes. Although current works-in-progress include a novella and a full-length memoir, my two most recent published books—The Demise of Virtue in Virtual America: The Moral Origins of the Great Recession (Front Porch Republic, 2014) and Conscientious Thinking: Making Sense in an Age of Idiot Savants (University of Georgia, 2017)—are both historical studies of cultural change written in a literary style. Originally from the Northeast, I now live in Seattle, where I teach in, and am the former director of, the Creative Writing Program at the University of Washington.

But enough of that. The primary purpose of this portal is to supply digital passers-by with a diverse sample of my actual work, recent and past: published essays and stories; excerpts from books and works-in-progress; interviews given and reviews received. I don’t think—or sometimes, it seems, even blink—at the pace of a tweet. But I do value concise thought beautifully expressed, and will be posting on a regular basis, under the heading Journal, short meditations from notebooks I’ve been keeping: both “thoughts composed” (by myself) and “thoughts collected” (by authors whose work I admire.) Although they will appear here in a serial fashion in what we over-confidently call “real time,” these entries won’t serve the usual function of a blog—that is, they won’t be rapid responses to contemporary events but rather supply a representative sampling of my thinking and reading over the years . . . a kind of autobiography in aphoristic ideas. And as such, to my mind, more revealing than the usual résumé or academic CV.

Enjoy (or not) any or all of the readings supplied here:  they were, from the start, made with the hope of provoking a response.

— David Bosworth
davidbos@uw.edu

Conscientious Thinking: Making Sense in an Age of Idiot Savants is now available. Click on “books” above for details.