Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair
J.R.R. Tolkien has a message for us: Don’t give in to Trump.
Oct 3, 2025 / Aaron Regunberg
On the Road With Joe Westmoreland On the Road With Joe Westmoreland
The writer’s only novel, Tramps Like Us, is a classic of queer literature—one that crystallizes the agony and the ecstasy of coming of age during the HIV era.
Sep 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sasha Geffen
Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History Susan Choi’s Big Novel of History
In Flashlight, Choi examines the tragedies—past and present—that haunt a family living in Japan.
Sep 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya
The Ghosts of Ingeborg Bachmann The Ghosts of Ingeborg Bachmann
Haunted by a dark past, the poet and novelist tried to explore the limits of language itself.
Sep 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld
Catherine Lacey’s Missed Connections Catherine Lacey’s Missed Connections
In her most personal work, The Möbius Book, Lacey uses a devastating moment of heartbreak to ruminate on the messy intersections between life and writing.
Aug 13, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Alana Pockros
Mark Twain’s Many Lives Mark Twain’s Many Lives
A new biography depicts the different sides of the American author.
Aug 11, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Adam Hochschild
Is Pitching a Novel All That Different From “Shark Tank”? Is Pitching a Novel All That Different From “Shark Tank”?
Alex Higley’s True Failure, which dramatizes one man’s dream to pitch his business idea on reality TV, slyly compares this bathetic task to publishing literary fiction.
Jul 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Ben Sandman
The Impish Modernism of Michael Clune The Impish Modernism of Michael Clune
In Pan, his debut novel, he makes the unruly mind of a teenager the stuff of high art.
Jul 21, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Adam Wilson
The Fragmented Lives of Nate Lippens The Fragmented Lives of Nate Lippens
His bracing novels represent an honest reckoning with the post-AIDS era and its effect on life and imagination.
Jul 15, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Gutterman Tranen
Great Authors Are Just As Human as the Rest of Us Great Authors Are Just As Human as the Rest of Us
A new play about Roald Dahl shows the now-controversial children’s writer in his flawed, complicated reality.
Jul 7, 2025 / Katha Pollitt