Assign and edit articles for the investigative news outlet.

I write an op-ed column on politics every other week for The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. Because of other obligations, I write fewer freelance articles now than I did before 2016 when I was a frequent contributor to the New York Times and Walter magazine.

Taught writing course and provided individual instruction to students in the Master's program at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

• Guided reorganization of curriculum to reflect the rise of multi-media platforms. Supervising the creation of the school’s first online publication featuring video, audio and print stories by students. • Taught courses analyzing the theoretical and practical foundations of effective communication. • Helped students understand how to organize and write news stories, features stories, columns and speeches as well as mastering the skills of public speaking. • Designed lesson plans with a special emphasis on social and global diversity and how cultural beliefs and assumptions shape communication. • Wrote successful grant applications.

I developed this website, www.toptenbooks.net, as well as the Twitter feed and Facebook page, to support my second book, "The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books" (WW Norton). It feature lists of the ten favorite books of celebrated American and British authors such as Norman Mailer, Annie Proulx, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Franzen, Scott Turow, Margaret Drabble, Michael Chabon, Peter Carey and Tom Wolfe. The website, which I update weekly, includes almost all the material from the book and dozens of new lists from a growing stable of writers including Robert Coover, Caroline Leavitt and Maile Meloy.

Wrote weekly column exploring culture, politics and the world of ideas. Column won numerous national honors including the Distinguished Writing Award for Commentary from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Reported stories and wrote profiles about the world of ideas and the people who shape it. Solely responsible for producing Sunday book section. Duties included selecting all books for review, assign them to critics from around the country, editing their work, writing headlines, working with page designers. Wrote and starred in online video commentaries. Wrote blog titled “What’s the Big Idea?”