Hilary Masters achieves a rare double play this year, something only a fellow writer like Joyce Carol Oates can claim -- two new books published in one year.

In fact, the Mexican War Streets home he shares with wife Kathleen George is a veritable writer's factory. George herself published a novel this year -- "The Odds" (Minotaur Books, $24.95) -- her fourth crime tale set in Pittsburgh.

Masters, 81, is a novelist as well, but he also numbers poetry, short fiction and essays in his portfolio of writing that dates to the 1960s.

This year he adds more short fiction, "How the Indians Bury Their Dead: Stories" and essays, "In Rooms of Memory."

The essay collection, to appear in September from University of Nebraska Press ($24.95), reflects Masters' wealth of experience, from the literary life in New York in the early 1950s, to his childhood in Missouri of the '30s.

He shifts gears to the short story in the other September book, to be published by Southern Methodist University Press ($22.50). There are 14 stories in this collection, his third. SMU Press also is the publisher of a new edition of his terrific memoir, "Last Stands: Notes From Memory," originally published in 1982.

Masters worked as a theatrical press agent and newspaper publisher before joining the English writing faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

Overshadowed a bit by the popularity of memoir, the well-respected essay form is making a revival of sorts this year, not only from Masters, but several other veteran authors.

British novelist Graham Swift, author of the Booker Prize winner, "Last Orders," writes about writing in "Making an Elephant" (Knopf, $26.95).

Accompanying the essays are interviews, photos and memoir.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux has gathered up the writings of the late Leonard Michaels, who died in 2003 at 70, in "The Essays of Leonard Michaels" ($26).

An elegant stylist, Michaels wrote about the culture and people in his Manhattan of 40 and 50 years ago. He also wrote two novels and six story collections.

"In Other Words (Word Association, $12.95)" is a memoir of life as a Paris apartment owner, self-published by Laurie Graham, Pittsburgh resident and author of "Singing the City: The Bonds of Home in An Industrial Landscape" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998).

I brought it along on a recent trip to Paris and found it a great guide to the Left Bank.

"The Comedy of Charlie Chaplin" (Scarecrow Press, $65) is Pittsburgh performer and consultant Dan Kamin's study of the film legend's performances and movies.

"A Question of Murder" by Cyril H. Wecht and Dawna Kaufmann (Prometheus Books, $26.95). The embattled pathologist continues his review of controversial deaths in this new installment with forward by nonfiction crime author Ann Rule.