Faculty

Whether in academic essays, expository essays using personal experience, or fiction, I strongly agree with what Annie Dillard states in The Writing Life—that when you write you “lay out a line of words,” but that the writing itself inevitably “digs a path you follow.” This concept means surrendering control to what the words, what someone’s dialogue, or what a particular character might reveal to us in the moment. It means writing essays in which you allow yourself to break free of your outline, because the writing process itself has suddenly taken you in a new and more interesting direction. I hold this as one of the great pleasures, and rewards, of the hard work involved in any form of writing.

In my first-year writing courses, my themes and syllabi often draw from my interest in short fiction, narrative essays, and Modernist literature. As a writer who also has a background in literature, I very much hold close-reading as essential in making us better writers and thinkers. When our job is to write academic essays, the writing process begins not when we put our pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), but when we’re marking a text and trying to account for our own ideas in the words we put in the margins. It’s messy, time-consuming work—and essential in guiding our thinking even before we head into a draft.

Wesleyan University.  B.A. in French Literature and International Politics

University of Kent at Canterbury (UK).  M.A. in Modern Literature.  Dissertation: “The Setting of American Modernism”

New York University.  M.F.A. in Fiction Writing.  Graduate Fellow in Expository Writing

The following publications can also be found at: jonathanliebson.com

• HELLO (AND GOODBYE) TO ALL THAT: A Memoir of a Changing New York in the 21st Century. Post Hill Press (2025). To read a summary or chapter excerpt, go to: jonathanliebson.com

• “The Writer in the Family.” Personal essay about the shared backgrounds of my father and author E.L. Doctorow, and my mentorship with Doctorow as a grad student. THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR. 6/8/25.
• Review of Simon Kuper, Impossible City: Paris in the 21st Century. LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS. 6/4/24.
• Review of Jody Rosen, Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle. LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS. 6/26/22.
• “Confessions of a Cyclist.” Personal essay/memoir about the highs and lows, twists and turns, and near kerfuffles of riding a bike in New York City. A reflection on how we share space and navigate differences.  The American Scholar.  6/1/22.
• “9/11: Taking the Long View.” A memoir/photographic essay of September 11th, as witnessed from my roof deck and downtown Manhattan, and a reflection on the days and weeks to follow.  The American Scholar.  9/11/21.
• “Second Avenue Elevated.” Personal essay/memoir about father’s childhood in New York City in the 1940s and ’50s, my grandfather’s drugstore in Midtown, and the subways and baseball players of his day.  Tablet Magazine.  8/29/19.
• “Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades, 50 Years Later.” Essay on the early feminism in the Nobel Prize writer’s first story collection, and the book’s continued relevance today. The Atlantic Magazine. 1/3/19. 
• More reviews can be found at: jonathanliebson.com