Chris Bachelder lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. His new novel is called Abbott Awaits.

• FULL TEXT
  February 2011: The Dead Chipmunk
  The jokiness of a joke can be explained by the Ontic-Epistemic Theory, the surprisy, and the absence of post-Chekhovian details.
• FULL TEXT
  January 2010: Toward a Theory of Surprise
  In reading, we perform the nearly oxymoronic feat of seeking surprise.
• October 2007: Schema: When Basketball Imitates Melville
• February 2007: Doctorow’s Brain
  Is fiction a science, or an illusion?
• September 2005: Review of Wesley Stace’s Misfortune
• FULL TEXT
  October 2004: A Soldier Upon a Hard Campaign
  On satire, Upton Sinclair’s astonishing deployment of exclamation points, and the possibilities of politically engaged writing.
• September 2004: The Believer Reading Group Guide for Bright Lights, Big City
  McInerney’s first novel still reveals real pain, even though no one wears Ray-Bans anymore.