Peck’s essays “challenge received critical wisdom with energy, fire, and unmitigated gall.”

Short Works

Apophasis, or “Widget” Is a Name for Something Whose Name You Don’t Know

Evergreen Review
criticism

I Have Secrets: on Gary Indiana

the Baffler
criticism

Trying to Sound Sincere: on George Whitmore’s Nebraska

the Baffler
criticism

Unanswered Prayers: on Bret Easton Ellis’s Imperial Bedrooms

Out
criticism

Bad Faith: on Andrew Sullivan

the Baffler
criticism

A Statement in Support of Americans Protesting the Murder of George Floyd

Evergreen Review
politics

In the Box: on Black Women’s Fiction of the 90s

the London Review of Books
criticism

Savage Grace: on Gary Indiana’s I Can Give You Anything But Love

Out
criticism

Ill-Informed, Incurious, Intemperate, Ignoble and Ultimately Illiberal

the Observer
politics

Homer’s Forge

Asymptote
criticism

Well, Duh: on David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest

the London Review of Books
criticism

Miss Direction: on George Santos

the Baffler
politics

Not Even Camping is Like Camping Anymore

Epiphany
fiction

Dogsbody

the Yale Review
memoir

Between Courage and Despair

LitHub
criticism

Susan Sontag as Metaphor: on Hervé Guibert

the Baffler
criticism

Old Codger: on Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake

the London Review of Books
criticism

Tacky Dress: on Gay epics in the 90s

the London Review of Books
criticism

Production Values: on American Idol and reality TV

the Atlantic
criticism

Gender Doubles: on the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City

the Baffler
criticism

Letter to my Teacher: on Zionism

Evergreen Review
politics

Dangerous Girls: on Philip Roth’s American Pastoral

the London Review of Books
criticism

A Lost Generation: on Heather Lewis’s Notice

New York Magazine
criticism

Moral Combat: on E.M. Forster

Bookforum
criticism