SELECTED SINGLE WORKS

LITERARY JOURNALS

“Memory, Fact, Imagination, Research: Memoir’s Hybrid Personality”, Solstice, A Magazine of Diverse Voices, Fall, 2009, On Line Journal, Solistice.

“Shorelines: A Meditation in Seven Beaches,” Iron Horse Literary Review, Summer, 2008, pp 47-54

“Living in Michigan, Dreaming Manhattan,” The Pinch, Fall, 2008, pp 5-15

“Working Out: A Memoir.” Paterson Literary Review, 2007/​8, pp 260-276 Chosen as a Notable Essay, 2007, Best American Essays, ed. David Foster Wallace and Robert Atwan, Houghton Mifflin

“School Daze: Riffs and Reflections on a New York Childhood,” Harpur Palate, Winter, 2006, pp 120-134

“Finding the Inner Story in Memoirs and Personal Essays,” Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, 5:1, Spring, 2003, pp 185-188

“Elegy for Ebbets,” New Letters, Spring/​Summer, 2002, pp 177-201
Chosen as a Notable Essay, 2003, Best American Essays 2030, ed. Anne Fadiman and Robert Atwan, Houghton Mifflin. Reprinted in Sport Literate, Special Issue: Retrospective Reflections, Spring, 2003, pp 120-135

“Planning For Surprise: The Role of Discovery in Writing Personal Essays and Memoirs.” Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, 3:2, Fall, 2001, pp 222-227

“A Voice in the Choir: Musings of a Mid-life Writer.” The MacGuffin, Spring 2000, pp 82-86

“Dream Expatriate.” Reprinted in The MacGuffin: Dreams of Travel Thoughts of Home, Spring, 2001, pp 57-67

“Writing Literary Memoir: Are We Obliged to Tell the Real Truth?” Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction 1:1, Spring, 1999, pp 142-146

“Long Courtship,” Sport Literate, Winter, 1997, pp 6-20.

“Chin Music: A Memoir,” The Florida Review, Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring/​Summer 1997, pp 68-79
Chosen as a Notable Essay, Best American Essays, 1999, ed. Edward Hoagland and Robert Atwan, Houghton Mifflin. Reprinted in The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/​On Creative Nonfiction ed. Robert Root and Michael Steinberg, Longman/​Allyn and Bacon (second-fifth editions, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010)
Reprinted in The MacGuffin, Spring, 2000, pp 73-81

“Living the Leelanau, Writing New York,” The Dunes Review, Spring, 1997, pp 55-58

“Trading Off: A Memoir,” The Missouri Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, Spring, 1994 pp 136-157
Winner of the 1993 Missouri Review Editor’s Prize
Chosen as a Notable Essay, Best American Sports Writing, 1995, ed. Glenn Stout and Dan Jenkins, Houghton Mifflin Reprinted in The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/​On Creative Nonfiction ed. Robert Root and Michael Steinberg, First Edition, 1998, Simon and Schuster/​Allyn and Bacon, pp 184-199
Reprinted in Scoring from Second, ed, Philip K. Deaver, 2007, Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, pp 104-128. Trading Off.

“Dreams of Immortality,” The Writing Self: Journeys Into the Art of Writing, 33, Summer, 1994, pp 11-13

“In Memory of a World Class Horse Player,” Hoofbeats, 1992, pp 47-58
Winner of the 1992 Harness Racing Association Prize for Best Feature Article

“Hymie: A Memoir,” Roberts Writing Award Annual, Kansas City, 1991, pp 67-71
Winner, 1991 Roberts Writing Award

LITERARY ANTHOLOGIES

"Notes From an Accidental Journal Keeper,"Writers and Their Notebooks, ed, Dianna Rabb, University of South Carolina Press, 2009, pp 101-109

“High School Baseball Tryouts,” After the Fall, ed. Maggie Anderson and David Hassler, University of Iowa Press, 2007, pp 143-145

“Trading Off: A Memoir” (reprint), Scoring from Second, ed, Philip K. Deaver, Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 2007, pp 104-128

“Trading Off: A Memoir,” reprinted in The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/​On Creative Nonfiction, ed. Robert Root and Michael Steinberg, Simon and Schuster/​Allyn and Bacon, first edition, 1998.

“Chin Music: A Memoir,” reprinted in The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/​On Creative Nonfiction, ed. Robert Root and Michael Steinberg, second-fifth editions (2002.2005, 2007.2010) Allyn and Bacon/​Longman

“Dream Expatriate,” Peninsula: Essays and Memoirs From Michigan, ed. Michael Steinberg, Michigan State University Press, 2000, pp 209-221

“Finding the Inner Story in Personal Essays and Memoirs,” reprinted in,” The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/​On Creative Nonfiction ed. Robert Root and Michael Steinberg, third-fifth editions, 2007, Allyn and Bacon/​Longman


TEACHING JOURNALS

“Teaching Writing Creatively: A Very Personal Approach to Creative Writing,” New Plains Review, Fall, 2008 pp 134-140

“Teaching Composition, Writing Creative Nonfiction: A Personal Narrative,” Writing on the Edge, Fall, 2007, pp 34-40.

‘Writing Literary Memoir: Are We Obliged to Tell the Real Truth?” reprinted in Writing on the Edge, 12:1, Fall/​Winter 2001, pp 15-20.

TEACHING ANTHOLOGIES

“Three Things That Stopped Me in My Tracks: An Exercise in Discovery and Reflection,” reprinted in Now Write Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction From today’s Best Writers and Teachers, ed. Sherry Ellis, Tarcher/​Penguin December, 2009, pp 3-5

“Planning for Surprise: The Role of Discovery in Writing and Teaching Nonfiction,” reprinted in Open Book, ed Kate Fetherston, Roger Weingarten, Cambridge Scholars, Press, 2006, pp 297-302

“Self Discovery to Self Examination: Teaching the Personal Essay as Inquiry,” Teaching Writing Creatively, ed. David Starkey, Boynton Cook/​Heinemann, 1998, pp 71-85

“Teachers Writing, Writers Teaching: Serving Two Passions, Workshop 6:The Teacher as Writer, ed. Maureen Barbieri and Linda Rief, Heinemann, 1994, pp 10-17

“Moving On and Why Write Narrative, Writers in the Classroom, ed. Ruth Nathan, Christopher Gordon Publishers,1994, pp 1-3 and 4-13.

SELECTED (VERY) POEMS

“Stand and Deliver Meets Dead Poets Society,” Writing on the Edge, Fall/​ Winter 1996/​1997 p 46

“Elegy for Ebbets” Sport Literate, Winter, 1996/​1997, p. 46









Selected Works

Memoir
Still Pitching: A Memoir
“My favorite book of the year. An astonishing look at the pains of growing up.”
--Dan Smith, WVTF Virginia, Public Radio
Collection/Anthology
Peninsula: Essays and Memoirs From Michigan
“Wherever readers look, they’ll find a different essay, a different voice, a different Michigan.”
-- Crab Orchard Review
A Stage Play co-authored with Bob Baldori
I'm Almost Famous
"An evening of energy, hot music, laughs and sheer entertainment." Lansing State Journal
Anthology of/on Creative Nonfiction
The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction
“Offers the most thorough and teachable introduction available to this exciting genre.”
--John Boe, Editor, Writing on the Edge
Teaching/Writing
Those Who Do, Can: Teachers Writing, Writers Teaching -- A Sourcebook
"Root and Steinberg will be on the shelf near my desk that holds the most important books about the teaching of writing." -Donald Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing and Write to Learn
Literary Journal
Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction (Founding Editor)
"Fourth Genre is the Paris Review of nonfiction journals." Newpages.com
Writing Teaching Text
The Writer's Way: A Process-to-Product Approach to Writing
The Writer’s Way is the best book I’ve found yet for teaching first quarter Freshmen their first English writing sequence….” Dr. Sheila Coghill, Moorhead State University.