I write about the ethical and spiritual challenge of living a good life in America today. My expertise, built up through more than two decades of research and teaching, covers the meaning and value of work, religion and public life, and higher education.
My newest book, The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives, was published by University of California Press in January 2022. It is being translated into ten languages, with Korean, Portuguese, and Lithuanian editions already published.
My essays have been recognized as notable in Best American Essays four times (2019-2022) and in Best American Food Writing (2020) and have received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology (2019). My work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Washington Post, America, Commonweal, Notre Dame Magazine, The Hedgehog Review, The Point, Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere. Links to that work can be found here.
My teaching and research on work have been funded by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisville Institute.
I have a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia. I am a former tenured theology professor and director of a college teaching center. I now teach first-year writing at Southern Methodist University and creative nonfiction at the University of Texas at Dallas, and I teach for Writing Workshops. To get updates on when I will next offer a workshop, you can subscribe to my newsletter.
My first book, Secret Faith in the Public Square: An Argument for the Concealment of Christian Identity, won the gold medal for the religion category in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards 2009.
I live in Dallas, Texas.
You can follow me on Twitter or email me at jonathanmalesic@gmail.com.
