English Department Faculty
Carlo Rotella
Professor
Carlo Rotella
Ph.D.
Contact
Stokes Hall S419
Telephone: 617-552-3191
Email: rotellca@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Wesleyan University
- Ph.D., Yale University
Research Interests
American Studies
Urban literature and culture
American literature
Nonfiction writing
Department
Biography
Professor Rotella聽writes for the New York Times Magazine, he has been a regular columnist for the Boston Globe and radio commentator for WGBH FM, and his work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Critical Inquiry, American Quarterly, The American Scholar, Raritan, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post Magazine, Transition, Harper鈥檚, DoubleTake, Boston, Slate, The Believer, TriQuarterly, and The Best American Essays.聽聽He has held Guggenheim, Howard, and Du Bois fellowships and received the Whiting Writers Award, the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award, and The American Scholar's prizes for Best Essay and Best Work by a Younger Writer, and Cut Time was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has received U.S. Speaker and Specialist Grants from the State Department to lecture in China and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is a founding editor of the 鈥淐hicago Visions and Revisions鈥� series at the University of Chicago Press.
Publications
Books
- The World Is Always Coming to an End:聽 Pulling Together and Apart in a Chicago Neighborhood聽(University of Chicago Press, 2019).
- Co-editor, with Michael Ezra, The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at Ringside (University of Chicago Press, 2017).
- Playing in Time: Essays, Profiles, and Other True Stories (University of Chicago Press, 2012).
- Cut Time: An Education at the Fights (Houghton Mifflin, 2003).
- Good With Their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt (University of California Press, 2002).
- October Cities: The Redevelopment of Urban Literature (University of California Press, 1998).
Recent articles and chapters
- ","听New York Times Magazine聽(February 19, 2023):聽 34-38.
- ","听New York Times Magazine聽(January 8, 2023):聽 16.
- ","听Washington Post Magazine聽(July 24, 2022):聽 18-27.
- Washington Post Magazine (April 3, 2022):聽 cover, 10-15.
- Virginia Quarterly Review 97/4 (Winter 2021/2022):聽 12-22.
- "Foreword," Wherever I'm At:聽 An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, ed. Donald G. Evans and Robin Metz (Chicago Literary Hall of Fame/After Hours Press, 2022):聽 11-14.
- Washington Post Magazine (February 7, 2021):聽 20-26.
- "The Literature of Neighborhood" in The City in American Literature and Culture, ed. Kevin R. McNamara (Cambridge University Press, 2021):聽 57-69.聽
- "Stuart Dybek and the New Chicago's Literature of Neighborhood" in Chicago:聽 A Literary History, ed. Frederik Kohlert (Cambridge University Press, 2021):聽 400-413.
- Post Road 37 (Winter 2020).
- Washington Post Magazine (October 25, 2020):聽 cover, 18-25.
- Politico (October 22, 2020).
- Washington Post Magazine (July 18, 2020):聽 18-25.
- "The Boston Movie Boom," The City in American Cinema:聽 Post-Industrialism, Urban Culture and Gentrification, ed. Johan Andersson and Lawrence Webb (London:聽 Bloomsbury, 2019):聽 153-174.
- ","听The New Yorker聽(May 22, 2019).
- ,"听Fortune聽(May 30, 2019).
- ","听New York Times, May 19, 2019.
- 鈥淗arry Greb, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, and the Roaring Twenties,鈥澛�The Cambridge Companion to Boxing, ed. Gerald Early (Cambridge University Press, 2019):聽 79-89.
- "',"听Journal of Popular Music Studies聽30.4 (December 2018):聽 5-10.
- ","听New York Times Magazine聽(December 30, 2018):聽 20.
- ","听Literary Hub聽(October 12, 2018).聽 聽
- "Weird Tales,"听Chicago by the Book:聽 101 Publications That Shaped the City and Its Image聽(University of Chicago Press, with the Caxton Club, 2018):聽 100-101.
- "Urban Literature:聽 A User's Guide,"听Journal of Urban History聽44.4 (July 2018):聽 797-805.
- "Prefight: The Baddest 49-Year- Old On the Planet" and "Postfight: Your Intelligence Come Up," The Bittersweet Science: Fifteen Writers in the Gym, in the Corner, and at Ringside, ed. Carlo Rotella and Michael Ezra (University of Chicago Press, 2017): 1-7, 125-150.
- 鈥淗arry Greb, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, and the Roaring Twenties,鈥� Cambridge Companion to Boxing, ed. Gerald Early (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
- ","听New York Times Magazine聽(December 25, 2017)
- "," catalogue essay for "PlayTime," an exhibition on games at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (October 17, 2017)
- ",'"听New York Times, September 22, 2017: A25
- "Foreword," Jack Vance, Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight (Spatterlight Press, 2016 [1983], forthcoming 2016).
- "Hurtin" (On the Bottle): Margo Price," New York Times Magazine (March 13, 2016): 28-32.
- "Buddy Emmons," New York Times Magazine (December 27, 2015): 56.
- "No Dragons, No Zombies," Washington Post Magazine (August 2, 2015): 8-15.
- "," New York Times Magazine (May 31, 2015): 28-33.
- "," New York Times Magazine (May 1, 2015):聽
- 鈥淧rofiling 鈥楳oney,鈥欌�� Public Culture 27.1 (January 2015): 7-19.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (November 2, 2014): 22-27.
- 鈥淭he Landscape of Home,鈥� Our Boston: Writers Celebrate the City They Love, ed. Andrew Blauner (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013): 290-300.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (September 15, 2013): 26-32, 53.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (March 17, 2013): 聽36-39.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (December 30, 2012): 聽27.
- 鈥淭he Cult of Micky Ward in Massachusetts,鈥� For the Home Team: 聽Essays on Sport, Community, and Identity, ed. Daniel Nathan (University of Illinois Press, Sport and Society series, 2013).
- 鈥淭he Case Against Kojak Liberalism,鈥� The Wire: 聽Race, Class, and Genre, ed. Liam Kennedy and Stephen Shapiro (University of Michigan Press, 2012): 聽113-129.
- "Within Limits: On the Greatness of Magic Slim," Pop When the World Falls Apart, ed. Eric Weisbard (Duke University Press, 2012): 230-239.
- 鈥淗ollywood on the Charles,鈥� Boston (January, 2012): 39-43.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (December 25, 2011): 28-29.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (August 15, 2011): 34-38.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (April 24, 2011): 24-29.
- 鈥�,鈥欌�� New York Times Magazine (December 12, 2010): 聽11-12.
- 鈥�,鈥� New York Times Magazine (November 28, 2010): 50-55.
- "Ghosts," in My Town: 聽Writers on American Cities (U. S. State Department, forthcoming). Excerpted online.
- "," Washington Post Magazine (March 21, 2010): cover, 10-17.
- "," The New Yorker (February 1, 2010): 聽24-29.
- 鈥淭he End of American Sporting Life,鈥� A New Literary History of America, ed. Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors (Harvard University Press, 2009): 聽856-860.
- "," Boston (September, 2009): 聽74-79, 134-142.
- "," New York Times Magazine (July 19, 2009): 聽20-25.
- "," Washington Post Magazine (July 20, 2008): 聽cover, 8-15, 22-26.
- "And Now, the Biggest Entertainer in Entertainment," Play: The New York Times Sports Magazine (June 1, 2008): 聽56-61, 87.
- "Praying for Stones Like This: The Godfather Trilogy," Catholics in the Movies, ed. Colleen McDannell (Oxford University Press, 2007): 227-252.
- "," Boston (November 2007): 120-123, 134-139
- "Pulp History," Raritan 27.1 (Summer 2007): 11-36.
- "," New York Times Magazine (April 15, 2007): 36-39.
- "The Two Jameses," The Believer (April, 2007): 49-54.
- "The Elements of Providence," Washington Post Magazine (September 17, 2006): 24-28, 51-53.
- "The Kingdom and the Power," Boston (August 2006): 69-84.