The Brooklyn Potluck That Helped Black Literature Flourish The Brooklyn Potluck That Helped Black Literature Flourish
In Courtney Thorsson's cultural history The Sisterhood, she details how intimate gatherings played a role in the golden age of Black women's writing.
Sep 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire
How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon How Historical Fiction Redefined the Literary Canon
In contemporary publishing, novels fixated on the past rather than the present have garnered the most attention and prestige.
Sep 11, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Alexander Manshel
The Genius of Garth Greenwell The Genius of Garth Greenwell
Set abroad or at home, in unfamiliar worlds an ocean away or in an intensive care unit in Iowa, Greenwell's novels are songs of the self and of the United States as a whole.
Aug 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Gold
Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money
Having gnawed away at literary and political conventions from within their hallowed forms, Senna has now set her eyes on Hollywood.
Aug 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye
Rachel Kushner’s Brilliant Avant-Garde Spy Thriller Rachel Kushner’s Brilliant Avant-Garde Spy Thriller
In Creation Lake, Kushner transforms the genre's familiar plot twists and turns into a study of the many fictions we tell one another.
Aug 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Nicolás Medina Mora
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
Hari Kunzru’s Novels of Creative Destruction Hari Kunzru’s Novels of Creative Destruction
Like his prior two, his latest tells a story of artistic and political frustration.
Aug 5, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Nawal Arjini
The Uncanny Brilliance of Helen Oyeyemi The Uncanny Brilliance of Helen Oyeyemi
In her new novel Parasol Against the Axe, Oyeyemi helps us imagine a new kind of literary ficiton.
Aug 1, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya
Venita Blackburn’s Stages of Grief Venita Blackburn’s Stages of Grief
In Dead in Long Beach, California, the novelist looks at how integral lying is to any story we tell about death.
Jul 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Christopher Soto
Clarice Lispector’s Cosmology Clarice Lispector’s Cosmology
To understand the philosophical dimensions of her fiction you must read her 1961 novel The Apple in the Dark.
Jul 24, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Shaj Mathew