Books and Ideas

Nation Poetry

Ars Poetica with Backup from The Clark Sisters Ars Poetica with Backup from The Clark Sisters

after “Is My Living in Vain?”, 1980

Dec 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Karisma Price

Idi Amin in Kampala, 1975.

Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda

In his new book Slow Poison, the accomplished anthropologist revisits the Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni years.

Dec 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Howard W. French

Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel

Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel

Your Name Here dramatizes the tensions and possibilities of political art.

Dec 16, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman

Regina Treitler and her husband.

The Supreme Court v. My Mother The Supreme Court v. My Mother

After my mother escaped the Holocaust, she broke the law to save her family. Her immigration story is more pertinent today than ever before.

Dec 13, 2025 / Leo Treitler

Sunset over Christ the Saviour cathedral in Moscow

Does Russian Feminism Have a Future? Does Russian Feminism Have a Future?

A Russian feminist reflects on Julia Ioffe’s history of modern Russia.

Dec 10, 2025 / Nadezhda Azhgikhina

Forrest Gander’s Desert Phenomenology

Forrest Gander’s Desert Phenomenology Forrest Gander’s Desert Phenomenology

His poems bridge the gap between nature’s wild expanse and the private space of one’s imagination.

Dec 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Bailey Trela

Capitalism’s Toxic Nature

Capitalism’s Toxic Nature Capitalism’s Toxic Nature

A conversation with Alyssa Battistoni about the essential and contradictory nature of capitalism to the environment and her new book Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nat...

Dec 8, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Edward Hopper, “Seven A.M.”

Solvej Balle and the Tyranny of Time Solvej Balle and the Tyranny of Time

The Danish novelist’s septology, On the Calculation of Volume, asks what fiction can explore when you remove one of its key characteristics—the idea of time itself.

Dec 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Dilara O’Neil

Italian painter Primo Conti drawing from life a portrait of Italian writer and dramatist Luigi Pirandello. Italy, 1920s.

Luigi Pirandello’s Broken Men Luigi Pirandello’s Broken Men

The Nobel Prize-winning writer was once seen as Italy’s great man of letters. Why was he forgotten?

Dec 2, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Gus O’Connor

The Sydney Swans in action.

The Inexplicable Logic of Contact Sports The Inexplicable Logic of Contact Sports

In The Season, Helen Garner considers the zeal and irrationality of fandom and her country’s favorite pastime, Australian rules football.

Nov 26, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Mikaela Dery

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