Before Sebald Was Great Before Sebald Was Great
By looking at his early work, we can better understand who the German writer was beyond his persona as the melancholy intellectual and serious man of letters.
Jul 28, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
Vigdis Hjorth and the Novel of Ugly Love Vigdis Hjorth and the Novel of Ugly Love
In If Only, the Norwegian novelist distills a story of romance into all its private discomfort and claustrophobia. Its intense ambivalence in regards to love feels truer to life. ...
Feb 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
Guy Davenport—the Last High Modernist Guy Davenport—the Last High Modernist
In the essays collected in Geography of the Imagination, one can glimpse the inner workings of the mind of a 20th-century literary genius.
Aug 21, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
Ben Lerner, Personal Poet Ben Lerner, Personal Poet
In his first collection of verse in over a decade, he applies the lessons of his successful, self-conscious prose.
Jan 31, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
What Happened to Peter Handke? What Happened to Peter Handke?
How an artist obsessed with interiority and language become a literary pariah.
Jul 26, 2023 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
The Question Dave Hickey Dared to Ask The Question Dave Hickey Dared to Ask
His work and life were committed to the trickiest of queries: Why do people despise critics?
Dec 6, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
The Hedonist Bard of the Midlife Crisis The Hedonist Bard of the Midlife Crisis
Why you should and shouldn’t read the provocative poems of Frederick Seidel.
May 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet? Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet?
Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts and the limits of literary fiction’s obsession with life online.
Feb 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace