[7] It is about the Jewish critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, and his escape over the Pyrenees from Nazi occupied France into Spain.

[1] Parini has published non-fiction books on a variety of subjects, including biographies of Robert Frost, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Gore Vidal and Jesus.

His other works of non-fiction include Theodore Roethke, an American Romantic (1980),[11] Some Necessary Angels: Essays on Writing and Politics (1997),[12] The Art of Teaching (2005), Why Poetry Matters (2008), Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America (2008),[1], The Way of Jesus: Living a Spiritual and Ethical Life (2018), and Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn By Heart (2024).Parini's biography Robert Frost: A Life won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for best non-fiction book of the year in 2000.

[19] Almost all of Spacey's other projects at the time were either cancelled or had him recast (and in the case of All the Money in the World, even re-filmed with Christopher Plummer replacing him as J. Paul Getty after filming of the original was already complete[20]) owing to this revelation.

Parini is played by Fionn Whitehead alongside Luis Gnecco as Borges, Alan Cumming as Alastair Reid (poet), and Peter Mullan as George Mackay Brown.

[21] Parini is a regular contributor to various journals, websites and newspapers, including The Chronicle of Higher Education,[22] CNN, The Daily Beast,[23] The New York Times,[24] and The Guardian (U.K.).

[29] Parini has made numerous appearances on film, television and radio, including NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC,[30] CBS, C-SPAN,[31] and the BBC.

However, First Lady Laura Bush canceled the event after learning the poets were intending to protest against the Iraq War.

[33] The event was attended by over 700 people, and received national attention, bringing in over 50 reporters and warranting coverage by C-SPAN and 60 Minutes.

[34] In 2010, Parini and Christopher Hitchens debated religion, the invasion of Iraq, and the war on terror at the Pages & Places Book Festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which drew more than 2,000 people.

[7] Parini's Robert Frost: A Life won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for best non-fiction book of the year in 2000.