The journalist on researching lust, the myth of female monogamy, and why “voyeurism is essential to good writing.”
Ela Bittencourt talks to the director of Losing Sonia, a profile of an Orthodox nun and icon painter who reflects the changes in modern Russia.
The writer and translator on the U.S. healthcare system, her guilt over creating characters from real life, and why she’s “not a good political militant.”
The activist, educator, and former leader of the Weather Underground on upholding revolutionary principles in “non-revolutionary times.”
He brought sushi to campus dining halls and revamped the dorms. Now he's wondering whether he did the right thing.
The 2013 National Book Award Finalist on magical thinking, never breaking a vow, and why she wants her poems “to have long legs.”
Legacy Russell talks with the author of Evil Men about conversing with war criminals and the paradoxes of naming "evil deeds."
The acclaimed novelist and short story writer talks about sensual sentences, the controversy surrounding his first novel, and why his “enemy is blasé, detached, ironic art of any kind.”
People come to think of their unhappiness as a disease, rather than the result of a traumatic world.
The documentary filmmaker on reenacting atrocity as an allegory for impunity in his new film, The Act of Killing, which exposes the perpetrators of Indonesia’s mid-century genocide.
A conversation between poets about writing place, time, technology, and transformation.
Tomas Hachard talks with the award-winning poet about 'border poetry,' cultural access, and the politics of writing about nature.
Poet Jaswinder Bolina discusses writing about race, the process of being translated, and more.
The activist academic on the prison industrial military complex and its impact on women of color.
Jamaica Kincaid on writing as transformation, “anger” versus truth, and those who think writers of color are “only entitled to write about the hardship of racism.”
Four painters on the complexities of categorization via nationality, race, and subject.
Inside the movement to bring the world thousands of tiny, crowd-sourced, community libraries.
The singer-songwriter talks with Dave Evans about her new label, the “protest album,” and her cats.
The debut novelist on the Great Migration and nation-building, conflations of race and class, and her “belief in belief."
The award-winning novelist on the fluidity of sexuality, the intersections of art and selfishness, and her most recent book, The Woman Upstairs.
The American writer discusses turning his back on showy prose, being labelled an “erotic” author, and “the importance of being somebody.”
The Pulitzer Prize winner on human rights work and playwriting, telling stories that are "profoundly unheard," and why she thinks a lot of writing about Africa amounts to little more than "pornography."
The cultural historian on the rhetoric of freedom, bossy white women, and the prospects of beating patriarchy by 2040.
The journalist and former sex worker on what feminists get wrong about prostitution.
The journalist and "accidental theologist" discusses distinguishing human from legend in her latest book on the founder of Islam.
The MacArthur “Genius” on his forthcoming sci-fi epic, Monstro, and the evolution of his wily main character, Yunior.
The director of the Arab Association of New York talks with Meaghan Winter about mosque monitoring, civil liberties, and kids asking 'why do they hate us?'
A Bosnian genocide survivor and a human rights journalist confront terror, loss, and what it takes to heal.
The iconoclastic leftist and novelist discusses the rage that fueled him, and how he felt about his coming end alongside the ruin of America.
Writer and former radical bookstore owner Sean Stewart talks about his new book on the underground press that was so vital to '60s counterculture.
Israeli-born sculptor Tomer Sapir—a “crypto-taxidermist” of creatures that have never walked this earth—surveys the borderlands of technology and nightmare.
The two visual artists on the gravitas needed to make protest art, the rhetoric and representations of the Occupy movement, and how to seduce an audience by grabbing them by the eyeballs.
Documentarian Annie Eastman tells the stories of families in Salvador’s palafitas—water slums built on piles of garbage—and confronts her outsider status.
Oana Sanziana Marian talks with the pioneering director about how a plagiarism scandal and an arts-organization takeover sparked a clash in Romanian politics—and how it may lead to reform.
In the afterglow of her Pulitzer win, the feminist playwright opens up about border-crossing, why she’d make a terrible critic, and her master teacher, Paula Vogel.
Mai Iskander, director of Words of Witness, talks with Ela Bittencourt about the reporting/activism dilemma, Egypt’s disappeared, and the rule of law under Morsi.
Christine Lee Zilka interviews Don Lee, author of the new novel The Collective, about cover-art Orientalism, character heritage, and the improbability of becoming a writer.
A conversation recorded on the road reveals the late author’s take on the role of the writer-as-activist. Read and listen.
Anthony Swofford on bad habits, good writing, and coming back from the brink
Haniya Rae interviews Jessica Porter on the process of curating artist Katarzyna Majak's new photography exhibition, 'Women of Power.'
The literary legend on his new book of poetry, about a personal evolution, and those he's published; MFA's and prizes; and the ongoing river of language.
The Bolivian writer Juan Claudio Lechín on the conditions that predicate fascism and the morality of anarchism.
Dissident Wuer Kaixi talks about fellow activist Chen Guangcheng, his own attempt to return to China, and his continued hope for “counter-talk” with the regime that exiled him.
Sebastian Black and Cole Sayer discuss CGI, the NFL, and the mythology surrounding being a painter.
South Africa's Pieter Hugo on negotiating representations of Africa, the searing controversy surrounding his work, Nick Cave, and his friend the late Tim Hetherington.
Author Misha Glenny discusses the escalating danger of cyber-crime, its impact on civil liberties, and why hackers should be nurtured for their creativity and skills.
Painter Sangram Majumdar invites Guernica to his studio to view a few in-progress paintings and learn about his process.
Haniya Ray interviews the Critical Mass agitator and artist.
Michael Sandel on a society where everything could be up for sale.
Rebecca Solnit and David Graeber on anarchism as a problem-solving tool, the return of debtors' prisons, and why communism is ingrained in capitalism
Sadakat Kadri on Muslim and Western ignorance of what Shari'a law really means--and the real concerns that should be targeted.
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.
Beth Harrison, interim director of the Academy of American Poets, talks about the value of a national poetry month, the well-versed movie, and Poem in Your Pocket Day.
Pultizer Prize-winner Mark Strand on falling in love, leaving the U.S., and the next chapter.
Irina Rozovsky contends with questions of how land, identity, and conflict can be identified into two-dimensional form.
From a new collection of playwright interviews, Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz on Lorca, American directors, and the cross he won’t bear.
Sam Lipsyte on being an American writer in translation and the venerable tradition of masturbation in literature.
The great eater, writer, and humorist Calvin Trillin remembers when journalism wasn't so respectable.
Candace Feit on her work exploring loneliness and solitude among fishermen in Tamil Nadu, on India’s south coast.
Q&A with the recent winner of the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.
Michael Ondaatje on making fiction of un-remembered autobiography, holding back two-thirds of the story, and bringing the marginalized to the center
The memoirist/poet on adaptation and how all literary trilogies come back to Star Wars.
American Playwright John Guare on Tennessee Williams, writing strong dialog, and discovering a New Orleans lost in history.
The famous documentary photographer on the importance of Nigerians archiving their own history.
Genre-defying British writer Geoff Dyer on how watching Tarkovsky’s Stalker on repeat turned into his most successful book.
Novelists Mirza Waheed, Roma Tearne, and Daisy Hasan on how novels help us understand the strife-filled regions of Asia.
Hoop Dreams director Steve James’s new film follows former gang members who neutralize Chicago gang violence
The artist Eve Sussman dissects infrastructure as beauty, Soviet-era aesthetics, Occupy Wall Street, Williamsburg lofts, and her latest film that uses an algorithm to distinguish each screening. With a sample selection.
South Korean poet on subverting expectations, her use of grotesque language, and the state of feminism in Korea.
The investigative journalist on the search for Maria Fernanda, the role of Christianity in the trafficking of Guatemalan adoptees, and funding the research for her book via Kickstarter.
