About Brook
Paradise Lust is Brook Wilensky-Lanford’s first book. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the New Yorker books blog, The Guardian, The New Republic and elsewhere. Brook holds a PhD in Religion in the Americas from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (learn more about that here), a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Theater and Religion, and an M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University, where she won a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship funded by the National Endowment of the Arts. She is the former managing editor of acclaimed online literary magazine Killing the Buddha, and has taught creative and academic writing The City University of New York, The New School for Design; and the University of California Berkeley Online Extension. She lives in Chapel Hill with her husband and two cats. Find her on Twitter here.
Audio:
- The Classical Ideas Podcast, Ep. 212
- WBUR “On Point”
- BBC Radio “Off The Page”
- The New York Times Book Review podcast
- Bloomberg News, “The World In Time with Lewis Lapham”
- NewsTalk Radio Ireland
- The Fairness Doctrine
Print:
- God and Country: A New History of Religion in the United States [working title], Grove Press, 01/01/2025
- Mark Twain’s Heaven ‘On A Liberal Plan’: Racial Anxiety at the Pearly Gates in American Examples: New Conversations About Religion Volume 2, University of Alabama Press, 03/01/2023
- Podcasting the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Journal of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era, 08/04/2022
- Beyond “The Perfume or the Mustard Gas”: The New Religion Journalism Meets the 21st Century, The Commons, 8/1/2021
- Gen Z’s Religious Affiliation Stats Are Confusing Through A Christian-Centric Lens, Religion Dispatches, 07/27/2021
- How To Talk To ‘Nones’ and Influence People: Rob Bell’s Transrational Experience in The God Beat: What Journalism Has to Say About Faith and Why It Matters, Broadleaf Books, 06/01/2021
- “Keep the Pearly Gates Ajar”: A Racial History of Heavenly Accessibility, 1868-1909, Dissertation, UNC-Chapel Hill, 05/01/2021
- Back to the Garden: Bringing Visitors to American Edens (1885-1956) , The Bible And Global Tourism, T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 01/01/2021
- “God Bless and Be Well”: Southern Baptists Move Online, Killing the Buddha, 6/12/2020
- “Moment after Moment after Moment: Cultivating a Zen Presence on Mount Desert Island”, Chebacco: The Magazine of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, Vol. XX, 6/01/2019
- Avoiding False Judgments About Trump’s Evangelical Supporters, Nieman Storyboard, 4/11/2019
- Jonas Bendiksen: Among the Messiahs, Guernica, 12/29/17
- Past Perfect: Moravians Settle in North Carolina in 1753, Our State (N.C.) magazine, 9/01/2017
- What The Dentist Taught Me About My Depression, The Mighty, 7/27/17
- The Shortlist: Religion, The New York Times Book Review, 7/15/16
- How To Talk To ‘Nones’ And Influence People: Rob Bell’s Transrational Experience, The Cubit, 6/6/16
- ‘Whole Self Movement’: An interview with Rabbi Becky Silverstein, Guernica, 12/15/15
- A Brief History of U.S.-Papal Diplomacy, , The New Republic, 9/22/15
- Falling Asleep In The Afterlife: Boring Movies About Heaven, The New Republic, 9/11/15
- An Awkward Adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet”, The New Yorker, 8/5/15
- Putting the ‘Ac’ Back in Alt-Ac, Chronicle Vitae, 7/24/15
- “Nonfiction Religion and Other Oxymorons: An Introduction”, CrossCurrents , 06/01/15
- “ ‘Your Children Are Not Your Children’: Kahlil Gibran’s Counter-Cultural Bible”, CrossCurrents, 06/01/15
- Killing Jesus: History According to Bill O’Reilly, The Guardian, 3/29/15
- Review, Christ Actually, Boston Globe, 12/30/14
- Exodus and the Uselessness of the “Bible Movies” Category, The New Republic, 12/12/14
- Review, The Lost Book of Mormon, Boston Globe, 11/1/14
- Tales of a Jewish ‘Nun’, The Jewish Daily Forward, 10/25/14
- Dangerous Lies We Tell About America’s Founding, The New Republic, 7/4/14
- Questioning America’s Christian Roots: An Interview With Matthew Stewart, The Boston Globe, 7/4/14
- Your Pseudoscience Beach Read: Creationist Infighting Edition, Religion Dispatches, 6/24/14
- When Experimental Theater Meets Experimental Faith: The Wooster Group’s Early Shaker Spirituals, Religion Dispatches, 6/11/14
- Mad Men’s Matt Weiner, Warrior Against “Woo”, Religion Dispatches, 6/4/14
- All Aboard The Ark, The Revealer, 5/13/14
- Sweet and Sour Spirituality, Religion Dispatches, 4/25/14
- Review, Living With a Wild God by Barbara Ehrenreich, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/18/14
- Talking to NOAH’s Screenwriter about Being an Eco-Wacko, Religion Dispatches, 4/14/14
- Maine: A Spiritual Frontier Opens for Business, , Religion and Politics, 4/3/14
- Religion Comes to Its Senses: Breaking Bread with S. Brent Plate, Religion Dispatches, 3/31/14
- Making Space For All On Aronofsky’s Ark, Religion Dispatches, 3/28/14
- Noah Movie Is Closer to the Bible Than Its Critics Will Admit, The New Republic, 3/27/14
- Evidence of Big Bang Discovered!, , Religion Dispatches, 3/19/14
- Sentient Meat & Questionable Redemptions: Tweeting True Detective, Religion Dispatches, 3/11/14
- First Behind the Scenes Clip from NOAH… , Religion Dispatches, 3/7/14
- True Detective’s Occult Conspiracy , Religion Dispatches, 3/7/14
- Bible Blockbusters and Christian Approval , Religion Dispatches, 2/27/14
- Latest Shroud of Turin Theory: Nuclear Emissions , Religion Dispatches, 2/26/14
- When Science Casts Doubt on Religious Details , Religion Dispatches, 2/25/14
- A Series of Small Leaps: Interview with Jessica Wilbanks, , Killing the Buddha, 2/11/14
- Ham On Nye: Beyond the Debate, Killing the Buddha, 2/7/14
- Shunned: Showing the Amish Without Showing Them , Religion Dispatches, 2/6/14
- Heaven Is a Place on Earth , Religion Dispatches, 1/16/14
- Ninety Years of Spiritual Merchandising, The Huffington Post, 1/9/14
- Religion Dispatches blog column (2014-2016), Religion Dispatches, 01/01/2014
- Review, Finding The Dragon Lady, , San Francisco Chronicle, 11/1/13
- Confessions of a Former Purist, Killing the Buddha, 10/10/13
- Review, The Shelter Cycle,, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/9/13
- Discovering Little Syria, New York’s Long-Lost Arab Neighborhood, Religion Dispatches, 5/25/13
- Finding Noah’s Ark: A Misconception of Biblical Proportions, Religion Dispatches, 12/28/12
- Review, Far From the Tree, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/26/12
- Review, The Fairies Return & From the Forest,Boston Globe, 11/10/12
- The News Cycle of Jesus’s Wife, Huffington Post, 9/26/12
- The Last Great Explorer: William F. Warren and the Search for Eden, Public Domain Review, 9/6/12
- Science and Religion–Sibling Rivalry?, , Killing the Buddha, 9/5/12
- High Ark: A Geologist on the True Meaning of Noah’s Flood, Religion Dispatches, 9/4/12
- The Lawyer Who Found Eden in the Florida Panhandle, , Religion and Politics, 7/12/12
- Empowerment Imperative: On Brave and Bloody and Having It All, , Guernica Daily, 7/5/12
- Babel On! books on linguistic diversity, Lapham’s Quarterly, 5/25/12
- Review, The Aleppo Codex, Boston Globe, 5/15/12
- Review, The Story of English in 100 Words, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/8/12
- Religion for Atheists for the Rest of Us, Religion Dispatches, 3/22/12
- Review, Religion for Atheists, Boston Globe, 3/9/12
- Review, Man Seeks God, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/18/11
- Review, Midnight Rising, , San Francisco Chronicle, 10/30/11
- Review, A Thousand Lives, , San Francisco Chronicle, 10/9/11
- The Whole Earth Catalog, , Frequencies Project, 9/28/11
- Searching for the Forbidden Fruit of the Garden of Eden, , Huffington Post, 9/26/11
- Review, Sweet Heaven When I Die, Boston Globe, 8/20/11
- Edens Everywhere, Killing the Buddha, 8/7/11
- Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden, Grove Press , 8/2/11
- Going Inside Scientology, author Q&A, Huffington Post, 7/6/11
- Review: Inside Scientology, , San Francisco Chronicle, 7/3/11
- I’ve Been to the Mormon Garden of Eden, and It’s Not What You Think, Huffington Post, 4/11/11
- Review, Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes, The Second Pass, 3/21/2011
- Adam and Eve At Home in Ohio, The Common, 03/01/2011
- Review, Einstein’s God by Krista Tippett, Killing the Buddha, 5/24/2010
- Heroes and Villains, biographies of Jesus, Moses and Satan, Lapham’s Quarterly, 1/19/2010
- Eden vs. Eden, World War I-era irrigation in Iraq, The Exquisite Corpse, 10/05/2009
- Why I Love Lucy, the exhibition of “Lucy” in Times Square, Killing the Buddha, 9/10/2009
- Science and Religion column, The Faster Times Internet newspaper, 01/01/2009
- Rough Transitions, WKCR 89.9 FM, Storyville in Studio A, 10/8/2008
- Boycotting Another World: Christian Conservatives at the Movies, Books That Saved My Life, 9/27/2008
- The Tree of Knowledge in Qurna, Iraq, photo essay, Triple Canopy, 3/17/2008
- Calling Ken Kesey,com, 11/17/2001