He also wrote scripts for Rabbit Ears Production that were recorded by Denzel Washington, Ben Kingsley, John Cleese, Susan Sarandon, and Danny Glover.
Kessler’s memoir, Goat Song; A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese was published by Scribner in 2009.
The book, consisting of small chapters in mixed-essay form, follows Kessler’s initiation into the life of herding goats and making cheese and his simultaneous discovery of the pastoralist roots of much of Western culture today, from its alphabet and economy to its religions and poetry.
It takes place in a Vermont monastery and follows the encounter of a Catholic monk and a Somali refugee denied asylum in the United States.
Kessler’s work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times Magazine, the Nation, Bomb, Kenyon Review, and The New Yorker.