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
The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy
A new book on the Biden’s wars serves as a stark reminder that the Democrats need to formulate a new foreign policy—as well as reckon with the one they had.
Sep 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Matthew Duss
James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love
While Baldwin was persecuted in part because of whom he loved, it was love that impelled him to bring about a more utopian future in which such persecution was not possible.
Sep 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques
William F. Buckley Jr.’s Friends and Enemies William F. Buckley Jr.’s Friends and Enemies
What was it about Buckley that made him so attractive to liberals—and what was it about liberals that caused them to be attracted to conservative figures like Buckley in the first...
Sep 8, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Jeet Heer
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
Red Scares, Past and Present Red Scares, Past and Present
What are the parallels between the rise of McCarthyism in the 1950s and today?
Aug 12, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David Cole
The Cold and Forbidding Worlds of Cynthia Ozick The Cold and Forbidding Worlds of Cynthia Ozick
In a new career-spanning collection of shorter fiction and nonfiction, the past often looms larger for Ozick than the present.
Aug 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Gold
The Wild Lives of Cargo Ships The Wild Lives of Cargo Ships
A capacious new history examines the remaking of the the global economy through the story a single barge.
Jun 9, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
Katie Kitamura’s Divided Selves Katie Kitamura’s Divided Selves
Her fiction are studies of fragmentation and ambivalence.
May 14, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye
The Invention of Close Reading The Invention of Close Reading
By transforming quotations into evidence, close reading served as way to turn postwar criticism into a specialized knowledge. But what if we treated it more as an art form?
May 12, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Dan Sinykin