Desert Reckoning: A Town Sheriff, a Mojave Hermit, and the Biggest Manhunt in Modern California History
The Lost Children of the Inland Empire

Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West
Chapter 1: The Horses Return

Twentynine Palms, Prologue: Prelude to a Kill

Blood Brothers: The Story of the Strange Friendship Between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill
Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill and the Battle for Standing Rock

Tucson, Ten Years After
Journal of the Plague Years, January 7, 2021

Is America Going Down Like Custer?
Public Seminar, September 20, 2020

America Is Grounded and the Birds Are Coming Back
The Independent, April 24, 2020

How I Almost Had Dinner with Dave Letterman and Walked Away
Los Angeles Review of Books, December 24, 2019

Everyone Who Blurbs My Books Dies
Los Angeles Review of Books, November 27, 2019

Winchester Cathedral: On Cowboys, Indians, Guns, and the American Condition
PowellsBooks.Blog, October 25, 2017

An Open Letter to Dr. Walter Palmer, Dentist, Hunter
Los Angeles Review of Books, August 19, 2015

Cougar Town: Of P-22, Maggie the Cat and, Room at the Inn
Los Angeles Review of Books, April 18, 2015

Winchester Cathedral
Los Angeles Review of Books, March 17, 2015

Echo of Thunder: Earthquakes Swarm and Another Wild Horse Herd Is Disappeared
Los Angeles Review of Books, November 19, 2014

Some Dance to Remember, Some Dance to Forget: A Few Thoughts on Iraq, "Hotel California," and Coming Home
Los Angeles Review of Books, August 23, 2014

Why I Write What I Write
Kirkus Reviews, March 28, 2013

The Last City I Loved: Los Angeles (Or How I Traveled the NY-LA Fault Line and Got Home)
The Rumpus, March 10, 2013

Does God Go on Manhunts?
PowellsBooks.blog, June 28, 2012

Letter from the West
truthdig columns, 2010-12

Interview
El Palacio Magazine, winter 2009

A Christmas Elegy for Bugz the Wild Horse, 1998-2009
laobserved blog, December 21, 2009

A Few Thoughts on Ft. Hood, Major Malik Hasan, and Business Cards
laobserved blog, November 17, 2009

Barack Obama, Yom Kippur, Chief Plenty Coups, and Wild Horses
huffingtonpost blog, September 28, 2009

review of The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns
LA Times, September 25, 2009

review of Operation Bite Back by Dean Kuipers
LA Times, June 28, 2009

A Cowboy Nation Destroys the Horse It Rode in On
essay on powells.com, May 31, 2009

Memorial Day Prayer for Charlie and Buffalo Bill
laobserved blog, May 24, 2009

review of The Lonely Soldier by Helen Benedict
LA Times, May 13, 2009

Guardians of Joshua Tree
Mother Nature Network, March 24, 2009

Tony Hillerman, Reclaimed
laobserved blog, October 26, 2008

Rocks in the Shape of Billy Martin Revisited
laobserved, September 21, 2008

The Wild Horse is Us Interview
Newsweek, July 1, 2008

Wild Horses Aren't Free
LA Times, June 2, 2008

Back in the Saddle, regarding a visit to the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota
Forward, May 29, 2008

The Other Side of Los Angeles
LA City Beat, February 7, 2008

Billy Martin, Joe Torre, and the Desert
laobserved blog, October 31, 2007

The Last Burros of the Mojave Desert: A Christmas Story that Needs a Happy Ending
huffingtonpost, December 24, 2006

Let's Mend the Broken Trail: July 4th Call for a Moratorium on Wild Horse Round-ups Following Recent Deaths
huffingtonpost, July 3, 2006

Mustang Sallies
slate, February 16, 2005

Symbol of the West Being Spurred Towards Oblivion
LA Times, June 1, 2004

Rocks in the Shape of Billy Martin
Village Voice, April 22, 2003

Manuscript Rescued by Desert Angels from Freak Storm
Or how I came to write Twentynine Palms, commit literary murder, and almost dash a decade’s work on an LA boulevard. An essay originally published on booksense.com, March 28, 2002.

No Escape
Twentynine Palms had called me many times and in many ways. Now, try as I might to escape the tale of Amanda Lee Scott and Rosalie Ortega and what happened to them in the desert, I could not. Originally published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, April 7, 2001.

The Real Gidget essay from Surf Culture: The Art History of Surfing

Hell's Author
salon, July 10, 2000

Trail of Dreams
My infatuation with the Pacific Coast Highway. An essay that appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Aug. 9, 1998.

Arafat’s Blood
Pondering the meaning of the old warrior donating his blood in Gaza City on September 12, 2001. Who would want it? Who, near death, would not? How many buckets of blood has Yassir Arafat himself spilled? From Rolling Stone’s commemorative 9/11 issue, published Oct. 25, 2001.

Onward, Christian Soldiers
A Nation essay exploring the strange and possibly pre-destined tango between evangelical Christians and Jews. Published June 3, 2002.