Books and Ideas

Tom Tomorrow cartoon

The Confounding Fathers The Confounding Fathers

Republicans want to be graded on a curve.

Apr 27, 2021 / Tom Tomorrow

John Edgar Wideman

The Craft of John Edgar Wideman The Craft of John Edgar Wideman

A conversation with one of the greatest living Black American writers on work, life, and why good fiction is like a game of basketball.

Apr 26, 2021 / Q&A / Elias Rodriques

Tom Tomorrow cartoon

Broken News Broken News

We interrupt this coverage of a tragedy with word of another tragedy.

Apr 21, 2021 / Tom Tomorrow

Joe From Scranton

Joe From Scranton Joe From Scranton

Since Biden has taken office, he has signed a wide array of legislation into law. But once the more immediate emergencies have passed, will he have the will and desire to enact a s...

Apr 20, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kim Phillips-Fein

Marx for Our Times

Marx for Our Times Marx for Our Times

A new book explores the social democratic impulses and Jewish origins of Karl Marx.

Apr 19, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Bruce Robbins

B. Traven: Fiction’s Forgotten Radical

B. Traven: Fiction’s Forgotten Radical B. Traven: Fiction’s Forgotten Radical

The enigmatic author’s anarcho-communist politics seep into his novels about wage labor, class consciousness, and the violence of capital. 

Apr 14, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Clinton Williamson

Diorama of Manhattan at 1939 World's Fair

How ‘Things’ In Fiction Shape the Way We Read How ‘Things’ In Fiction Shape the Way We Read

Sarah Wasserman’s recent book looks at how the objects we take for granted in stories can reveal even deeper meaning.

Apr 13, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Sophie Haigney

Guston in his Woodstock studio

Philip Guston’s Peculiar History Lesson Philip Guston’s Peculiar History Lesson

On the painter’s politics of self-questioning.

Apr 12, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

Nation Poetry

To Julia de Burgos To Julia de Burgos

Already people murmur I’m your enemy since they say that in verse I give the world to me. They lie, Julia de Burgos. They lie, Julia de Burgos. The one rising in my verses isn’t yo…

Apr 10, 2021 / Poems / Julia de Burgos and Ilan Stavans

Nation Poetry

Ann Arbor doesn’t need streetlights Ann Arbor doesn’t need streetlights

Black ass is obvious at 2:00AM on Geddes Avenue. Should I blame N my thighs, sheering denim to skin windows? Or these cornbread- N cultivated hips Clifton passed on to me that seem…

Apr 6, 2021 / Poems / Courtney Faye Taylor

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