Nation Topics - Essays | The Nation

How did everything a writer had known and loved come violently apart?

No one dies for poetry anymore, not even in Russia. Enter the oligarchs, who steer clear of Putin’s ire by sponsoring literary prizes.

A case of scientific misconduct at Harvard.

Punitive yet salvific, austerity is the ideology of a country that has turned against its own culture.

Charles Taylor is a sadly endangered type: the philosopher-statesman.

Esther studied botany and biochemistry, and ended up serving Cokes to arms dealers in Delhi’s Hotel Shangri-La. She is a station holder, occupied and rootless. Welcome to India Shining.

Freedom to do just what he pleases defines the life and writing of Geoff Dyer.

The Cross of Redemption tells the story of James Baldwin as a working writer: casual, lax and preachy, but also honest, angry and brilliant.

A new collection of Gore Vidal's essays showcases five decades of literary and political criticism, with his mocking, disenchanted patriotism in all its eloquence.

The collected nonfiction of Roberto Bolaño is a treasure trove filled with straw and dust, jewels and gold.