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
Fake Patriots Are Destroying Everything That Made America Great Fake Patriots Are Destroying Everything That Made America Great
By attacking equality of citizenship, MAGA is smashing the foundations of national pride.
Jul 4, 2025 / Jeet Heer
The Billionaires Are Abandoning Humanity The Billionaires Are Abandoning Humanity
Peter Thiel and his friends feel they no longer belong to our species.
Jun 30, 2025 / Jeet Heer
Antigone Kefala and the Art of Exile Antigone Kefala and the Art of Exile
The Australian writer’s 1984 novel, The Island, is a hypnotic work of fiction about the border between life and art.
Jun 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Madeleine Watts