Fiction
StoryQuarterly, “Tell Them Who You Are”
Fiction Southeast, “Together”
Juked, “Two Stories”
Covered With Fur (online magazine of A Strange Object), “New School”
> The Material (a photo essay about the inspiration & writing of “New School”)
Guernica, “Michigan: A Love Story” (Kirk wrote this story as a response to Sufjan Stevens’ “Say Yes to Michigan.”)
Essays & nonfiction
Follow links to a selection of pieces:
Air/Light, “A Complicated Grief.”
Texas Monthly, “How the Elephants at the Houston Zoo Helped an Austin Author.”
Catapult, “Keep Writing, Just Keeping Writing.”
The New York Times Book Review, “How the Author of ‘Ragtime’ Taught an Aspiring Writer to Hear the Music”
Lit Hub, “In Praise of Readings: A Brief History of Book Events I Have Attended”
Texas Highways, “Her Very Native Habitat: A runner reflects on Lady Bird Johnson’s legacy and the companionship of nature.”
Electric Literature, “Everything I Needed to Know About My Aging Mother I Learned From Grace Paley.” This essay drew inspiration from the New Yorker Fiction podcast of Allan Gurganus reading and discussing “My Father Addresses Me on the Facts of Old Age. You can listen to it here.
Longreads, “From One Friendship, Lessons on Life, AIDS, Death and Childlessness”
Los Angeles Review of Books, “Brief Lives: The Short Stories of Julie Hayden.” This essay was selected by bestselling author Cheryl Strayed as the introduction to the reissue of Hayden’s The Lists of the Past (Pharos Editions).
The New York Times, “Glimpses of an Elusive Quarry: Warblers, Ducks, and My Dad”
book reviews & Interviews
During the past fifteen years, Kirk has worked as a book reviewer, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. See below for a selection of reviews & interviews:
Curation and writing of 100 Texas Books for the Ages, Texas Highways Magazine.
The New York Times & The New York Times Book Review:
Review of Noah Hawley’s Anthem.
Review of Karen Thompson Walker’s The Dreamers.
Review of Ceridwen Dovey’s In the Garden of the Fugitives.
Review of Matt Bell’s The Scrapper.
Review of Scott Blackwood’s See How Small.
Shortlist of Southern Literature (Daniel Woodrell, Michael Farris Smith, and Claudia Zuluaga)
Review of Chris Adrian’s A Better Angel
Review of Per Petterson’s In the Wake
The San Francisco Chronicle:
Review of William Trevor’s Last Stories
Review of Dan Chaon’s Ill Will
Review of short story collections of Thomas McGuane, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and Antonio Ruiz-Camacho
Review of Jamie Quatro’s I Want to Show You More
Review of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch
The Virginia Quarterly Review:
“The Art of the Steal”: Essay about The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli and Only the Animals: Stories by Ceridwen Dovey
“Female Friendship: Debut Novels by Rufi Thorpe & Emily Gould”
Interviews in LARB:
Interview with Rick Moody, Hotels of North America
Interview with Lily Tuck, The Double Life of Liliane
Interview with Cheryl Strayed about Julie Hayden’s The Lists of the Past