A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, I have written over a dozen books, including novels, story collections, and essay collections, many of which I also designed and typeset. I’ve also written hundreds of articles and essays and designed literary journals and books for small presses.

AWARDS

Winterhouse Award for Design Writing in 2005 for American Mutt Barks in the Yard

My feature screenplay Summer Clubbing, adapted from my novel, was an Official Semifinalist in the Los Angeles Crime & Horror Film Festival 2021, a Quarterfinalist in the Screencraft Horror Screenplay Competition 2020, and an Official Selection in the HorrorHaus Film Festival 2020.

One of my essays was a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2007 (edited by David Foster Wallace). I’m listed as “Dennis Barringer,” for some reason. I include that essay, which is about my grandfather’s business cards, in There’s Nothing Funny About Design.

My fiction has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes and the StorySouth Award.

One of my stories, “The Poll,” was a Notable Story in Best American Non-required Reading.

NOVELS

American Home Life, 2007 (So New)

Johnny Red, 2005 (Word Riot Press) | Illustrations by Kim Battista

THE BUSINESS OF LAW

Legal Visionaries, 2013, and Unbound, 2009 (Lumen Legal, now Lexitas)

THE CULTURE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

There’s Nothing Funny About Design, 2009 (Princeton Architectural Press) | Ellen Lupton interviewed me about the book.

American Mutt Barks in the Yard, 2005 (Emigre); | Full text in PDF at Emigre | Winner of the Winterhouse Award for Design Writing

Little Book of Love Letters, Volumes 1-3 (Emigre) | I wrote the text for three type specimens for Emigre.

FICTION COLLECTIONS

We Were Ugly So We Made Beautiful Things, 2003 (Word Riot Press) | Introduction by Steve Almond | Cover art and interior illustrations by Eduardo Recife

Twisted Fun, 2006 (Word Riot Press)

Terminally Curious, 2005 (So New)

The Human Case: 29 Stories, 2002

The Leap & Other Mistakes: 35 Stories, 2000

MISCELLANY

The Dead Bug Funeral Kit, 2003 | I created a kit that included poems for eulogizing your dead bug.

I was the graphic designer for the literary magazine Opium Magazine. See issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Humans Make Robot Movies to Feel Better About Being Human in a Robot World, 2011 | I made this book for a senior seminar I taught in the Visual Communications Department at Winthrop University. I guided students in selecting their themes, creating their lettering, making their illustrations, and designing and publishing their books.

I designed the cover and typeset the 2010 New Jersey anthology What’s Your Exit?

I edited, designed, and published the anthology of writing during the Bush years entitled What Happened to Us These Last Couple Years? (2008)(Goodreads).

JOURNALISM

I have worked as a freelance journalist for over twenty years and published articles, features, cover stories, profiles, interviews, and essays in periodicals such as Details, American Bar Association Journal, New York Times, Men’s Journal, Men’s Fitness, Mademoiselle, Detroit Free Press, Detroit Monthly, American Prospect, Playboy, Metro Times, Massage Magazine, Coffee Journal, and many others.

DESIGN WRITING

My design writing has appeared in ID Magazine, Print (1, 2, 3), Emigre (issues 68, 69, and 70), AIGA, Eye Magazine, Looking Closer 5, Design Disasters, Designing Magazines, Design Observer (“Is There Bauhaus in IKEA?”), and many others.

I also wrote entries on Simplicissimus-B040, Lucky Strike-G007, and McDonald’s-I013 for The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design (2012).

I reviewed children’s books for The New York Times Book Review (1, 2, 3) and was even a judge.

For Eye Magazine, I reviewed books by Chip Kidd, Edward Tufte, and Kenya Hara. I also wrote this.

For AIGA, I wrote many pieces over the years about design and design culture. The following pieces are not included in the Nothing Funny collection: “Motor Home, Know Thyself,” “Crosshair in the Crosshair,” “Paper, Paper, Skin, and Body,” “Speak, Designers,” “The Mind Moves the World,” “Generation Squeezed,” “21 Writing Prompts for Design Students,” “An Interview with Paul Ford,” and “An Open Letter to Design Writers.”

The following pieces are included, in edited forms, in There’s Nothing Funny About Design: “Man and WIHF,” “Here Comes the Rooster,” “Desire’s Design,” “Red and Yellow Kills a Fellow,” and “Explanation: Crutch or Catalyst?”

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