Hello and welcome to “Unfamiliar Letters”!

My name is Paul Gleason and I’m an editor, essayist, and book reviewer living in southern Minnesota. Before getting a job at a not-for-profit, I earned a PhD from the Religious Studies department at the University of Virginia.

My essays here will be on my old academic interests: religion, literature, and higher education. I’ve modeled these essays on Francesco Petrarch’s “Familiar Letters,” a series of letters he wrote to his friends (and some historical figures) about his life and thoughts. If you’d like to know more about my plans for the essays, you should read my first post: https://paulwgleason.substack.com/p/coming-soon

I’d be honored if you’d sign up to get the emails:

In addition to these essays, I’ve also written book reviews for newspapers and magazines like The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Point, and the late, lamented Pacific Standard. I was one of the National Book Critics Circle’s “emerging critics” in 2018, and last year I was a finalist for The Washington Monthly’s non-fiction book review of the year award. You can find my reviews at www.paulwgleason.com.

I tweet @paulwgleason.

If you’d like to contact me directly, you can reach me at paul.w.gleason@gmail.com.

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Religion, literature, the higher learning in America.

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Reviews and essays in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Point, the LA Review of Books and elsewhere.