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This year (2026) marks the 15th anniversary of the passing of the great actor I wrote about for The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philip Seymour Hoffman.
In 2024 I began reporting for the storied Springfield Republican, where I started with a homage (2019) to Josiah Gilbert Holland, a neglected author who sold more books in his lifetime than Mark Twain. Hear the radio essay, or read the Wikipedia piece I wrote. He was born a stone's throw from my home at Dwight — a Wiki page I also created.
Speaking of home: I helped spearhead Dwight Day in 2024 and 2025, to wide acclaim.
Essays, read aloud
I read my own essays for the radio. Find all of my audio essays at SoundCloud (sign up, free, and follow) and my commentaries at New England Public Media.
Powerlessness
My first radio essay, from 2011.
In Philip Seymour Hoffman's Brilliant Performances, Some Saw Early On His Affliction
The gifted actor died of addiction in 2014 — also see my essay in The Philadelphia Inquirer, above.
Contagion in Family's Past and Present — a favorite, published during the pandemic.
Breaking Point: The Search for a Postwar Grandfather
Fall 2018 marked the 10th anniversary of the publication of "Breaking Point," a longform essay named a Notable Essay of 2008 by series editor Robert Atwan, and included in The Best American Essays 2009, edited by the poet Mary Oliver — the 24th volume in the series, dedicated to writer John Updike, who died that year. The essay first appeared in the Autumn 2008 issue of The Massachusetts Review; an earlier version won the Atlantic Monthly Essay Prize that year.
Listen: Breaking Point
Read by Michael Carolan in 2018, on the 10th anniversary of its publication (54 minutes).
"Michael Carolan's beautifully crafted essay, ‘Breaking Point: The Search for a Postwar Grandfather,’ moves back and forth in time exploring the relationship between the trauma of earlier generations and his own." — Sima Rabinowitz, Newpages.com
A three-part series
Begun in 2011 with Part I, the award-winning "Perpetual Hunger." Part II, Éireann's Exiles (2020), also on IrishCentral, a site with 3.5 million monthly readers. Part III, How My Ancestors Begin Their American Dream (2022) — with photographs, paintings and graphics marking the 175th anniversary of the Carolans' arrival in America, 1847–2022 — also on IrishCentral. And listen here. This was my first essay picked up by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
An Irish Passenger, An American Family, And Their Time — my old website, which my dad loved. I built it in the early aughts, when I first arrived at the UMass MFA Program for Poets and Writers. Preserved in the Wayback Machine.
Closer to home
Read my UMass Alumni Magazine articles. I ended my time at Clark University in 2023 — be sure to read my student's reported essay on my course.
My father is dearly missed; he passed in 2023 (my sister Nancy and I wrote his obituary). Since then I've been wiki-writing about where we grew up in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Melds personal, familial and national history to create a memorable expression of American experience." — Hillary Flynn, Director, Crossroads Irish-American Festival
"A truly dazzling portrait of a 19th century shipping firm." — The Intense Inane, Blogspot.com