Paul Collins

Fields: Creative Nonfiction, Magazine Writing

Biography:

Paul Collins is an author specializing in science writing, magazine writing, history and memoir; his ten books have appeared in a dozen languages. He is the recipient of an Oregon Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

On the PSU faculty since 2006.

Interviews with Paul Collins:

• LA Review of Books (2014)
• Librarything Interview, July 2013
• Full Stop interview, September 2011
• California Literary Review interview, July 2009
• Identity Theory interview, by Robert Birnbaum, September 2005
• Tin House interview, by Paul Durica, Winter 2004
• To The Best of Our Knowledge, PRI radio interview with Jim Fleming, March 2003
• The Onion interview, by Andy Battaglia, September 2001

Books:

• Blood & Ivy (W.W. Norton, 2018)
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living (New Harvest, 2014)
• Duel With the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery (Crown, 2013)
• The Murder of The Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars (Crown, 2011)
• The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World (Bloomsbury, 2009)
• The Trouble With Tom: The Strange Afterlife and Times of Thomas Paine (Bloomsbury, 2005)
• Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey Into the Lost History of Autism (Bloomsbury, 2004)
• Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books (Bloomsbury, 2003)
• Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't Change the World (Picador, 2001)
• Community Writing: Researching Social Issues Through Composition (Erlbaum, 2001)

Anthology Appearances:

• Read Harder, ed. by Ed Park and Heidi Julavits (2014)
• Best American Essays 2012, ed. by David Brooks
• The Autobiographer's Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir (2008)
• The Better of McSweeney's, ed. by Dave Eggers (2005)
• Bookmark Now, ed. by Kevin Smokler (2004)
• The Norton Reader, 11th edition (2003)
• The All-Music Guide to Rock, 2nd edition, ed. by Stephen Erlwhine et al. (2002)
• The Rough Guide to Rock, 2nd edition (1999)

Books Edited:

• The Rector and Rogue, by W.A. Swanberg. McSweeney's Books, 2011
• Curious Men, by Frank Buckland. McSweeney's Books, 2008
• The Lunatic at Large, by J. Storer Clouston. Intro. by Jonathan Ames. McSweeney's Books, 2007
• The Riddle of the Traveling Skull, by Harry Stephen Keeler. McSweeney's Books, 2005
• Lady Into Fox, by David Garnett. McSweeney's Books, 2004
• To Ruhleben and Back, by Geoffrey Pyke. McSweeney's Books, 2003
• English as She is Spoke, by Jose Da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino. McSweeney's Books, 2002

Selected Recent Articles:

• "A Quest to Discover America's First Science-Fiction Writer," New Yorker, 28 November 2020.
• "An Unintentional Scottish Masterpiece," New Yorker, 5 October 2015
• "How to Pitch a Magazine (in 1888)," New Yorker, 2 September 2014
• "Poe Debut, Hidden in Plain Sight?" New Yorker, 7 October 2013
• "The Original War on Christmas,” Slate, 13 December 2012
• “Rhyme and Reason: The Victorian Poet Scientists,” New Scientist, 30 December 2011
• “The Fickle Needle of Fate,” The Believer, July/August 2011
• “Murder off Miami,” Tin House, Spring 2011
• “The Case of the First Mystery Novelist,” New York Times, 9 January 2011
• “Vanishing Act,” Lapham's Quarterly, Winter 2011

Selected Recent Radio Appearances:

• "Dr. Parkman is Missing." Criminal podcast, 9 October 2020.
• "Miles Jupp and the Plot Device." BBC Radio 4. 31 Dec. 2015
• "The St. Nicholas League." NPR Weekend Edition With Scott Simon. 21 December 2013
• “Autism and Humanity.” On Being, 14 July 2011 rebroadcast
• “How a New York Murder Sparked the Tabloid Wars.” NPR Weekend Edition, 25 June 2011
• “Who Wrote the First Detective Novel?” NPR Weekend Edition, 8 January 2011
• “Barbara Newhall Follett, Disappearing Child Genius.” NPR Weekend Edition, 18 December 2010
• “Fingering Shakespeare's First Drafts.” NPR Weekend Edition, Nov. 28, 2009