Literary Criticism

Bittir station, Mandatory Palestine, 1934.

The Palestine of Soraya Antonius and Annemarie Jacir The Palestine of Soraya Antonius and Annemarie Jacir

In The Lord and in Palestine ’36, the story of Mandatory Palestine comes into focus.

Sep 9, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami

A parade of Jewish Bundists on May Day.

The Bund and the Radical History of Jewish Anti-Zionism The Bund and the Radical History of Jewish Anti-Zionism

Molly Crabapple’s Here Where We Live Is Our Country revisits the past of the Jewish Labor Bund and considers what it might mean for our future.

Sep 8, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Bruce Robbins

Love and Literature in Leslie Fiedler’s America

Love and Literature in Leslie Fiedler’s America Love and Literature in Leslie Fiedler’s America

When will the American novel grow up?

Sep 8, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick

Hiëronymus Bosch, detail from “The Temptation of St. Anthony,” c. 1501

Can We Save Democracy? Can We Save Democracy?

Hélène Landemore’s case for an alternative system of popular government.

Sep 8, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Osita Nwanevu

A shepherd reading,, by Johann Heinrich Roos (1631–1685).

How a Creative Mind Lives in Nature How a Creative Mind Lives in Nature

Working in the wilderness could not satiate my intellectual impulses. But for the protagonist of Hothouse Bloom, the binary between mental and physical labor is what calls her.

Sep 5, 2026 / Dan Sinykin

View of apartment buildings in Manhattan

Bad Mothers and Monstrous Children Bad Mothers and Monstrous Children

Jordy Rosenberg’s “Night Night Fawn” offers a multigenerational tale of Marxists, Zionists, and estrangement.

Aug 13, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Emmet Fraizer

John Edgar Wideman’s American Vernacular

John Edgar Wideman’s American Vernacular John Edgar Wideman’s American Vernacular

The master novelist offers a view of a United States defined by its cultures of improvisation.

Aug 11, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Walton Muyumba

Columbia University, March 2025.

What Happened to the American University? What Happened to the American University?

Once the envy of the world, higher education in the United States is now in a state of endless crisis.

Aug 10, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bessner

Illustration of an office worker in a suit standing on a red typerwriter.

Daniel Poppick’s Novel of White-Collar Work Daniel Poppick’s Novel of White-Collar Work

The first novel by the poet asks us what fantasies get us through the day.

Aug 6, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Julia Case-Levine

Janiform on display at the Louvre

Emily LaBarge’s Life Stories Emily LaBarge’s Life Stories

In “Dog Days,” LaBarge blurs the lines between memoir and criticism.

Jul 20, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Sophie Poole

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