Tag: Writing

What’s your story? It’s all in the telling.

The award-winning novelist on the fluidity of sexuality, the intersections of art and selfishness, and her most recent book, The Woman Upstairs.

When a chemical stick revealed that our little family was about to change, we were overjoyed. But not insured.

The American writer discusses turning his back on showy prose, being labelled an “erotic” author, and “the importance of being somebody.”

From a speech at the Earth at Risk conference, Roy on the misuses of democracy and the revolutionary power of exclusion.

The poet C.D. Wright discusses book-length works, the political in art, and more.

Guest fiction editor Roxane Gay introduces this issue’s erotica.

Reflections on a postcard from David Foster Wallace

The broad strokes of Tom Wolfe’s Back to Blood and the subtle specificity of Joan Didion’s Miami.

Banned Books Week: The celebrated and banned children’s book author speaks with us about the fears of censors, the deaths of children, and what we need to risk for literature.

Banned Books Week: The author of The Color Purple (and one of America’s most censured writers) tells Megan Labrise about finding wisdom in the songs of ancestors, why her acclaimed novel won’t be translated into Hebrew, and approaching writing in a priestly state of mind.

Despite what Kakutani says, Smith’s new novel is not "Mrs. Dalloway Lite."

Character study vs. flimsy romance in Fifty Shades of Grey, Trishna,and Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

A conversation recorded on the road reveals the late author’s take on the role of the writer-as-activist. Read and listen.

When writer Rivka Galchen and neuroscientist David Linden get together, the boundaries of science, emotion, and memory blur.

The Hungarian writer talks terror in fiction, the aesthetic of the long sentence, his love of contemporary music, and collaborating with Allen Ginsberg.

Tom Bissell talks about the blurred line between fiction and non-fiction, ridding the world of mediocre writing, and Tommy Wiseau of The Room.

Sam Lipsyte on being an American writer in translation and the venerable tradition of masturbation in literature.

Michael Ondaatje on making fiction of un-remembered autobiography, holding back two-thirds of the story, and bringing the marginalized to the center

Genre-defying British writer Geoff Dyer on how watching Tarkovsky’s Stalker on repeat turned into his most successful book.

In a candid interview, the Israeli author on Netanyahu’s impotence, how his son’s death affected his latest novel, and Israel’s need to embrace Palestinians with humanity.

The author of the lauded graphic novel Blankets discusses the influences behind his new book, the effect of 9/11 on his work, and the decline of the superhero in comics.

Lynne Tillman discusses her latest mindfuck story collection and how social reading platforms erode the barrier between writer and reader.

The author Amitav Ghosh discusses the link between anthropology and writing, The New Yorker’s edit of his essay on the Iraq war, and John Updike’s worst book.

On the heels of her second novel and fourth work of fiction, Bender considers magic and math, craft and discipline, and the influence of other writers and artists on her work.