Interview

Back Draft: Bianca Stone and Ruth Stone

By Bianca Stone, Ruth Stone, and Ben Purkert June 22, 2021

The poet discusses Emily Dickinson, strip clubs, and grieving over the loss of her grandmother.

Back Draft Lit World

Interview

AE OSWORTH: “I can, in fact, write 419 pages out of spite.”

By Sarah Madges June 7, 2021

"I will die on this hill, the hill that says: Everything that happens online is real. Online is reality, as much as meatspace."

Gender Lit World

Interview

In Touch With the Breath of the World

By Wendy Call and Roland Rugero May 19, 2021

Roland Rugero talks about living the literary life in a country of orality, writing across three languages, and upending the Eurocentrism that still decides which African voices get heard.

Africa Lit World

"I immediately loved the strength in her face. The way her jaw set. The anger in her eyes. The way she carried her body. Her body emerged from her sports coat and was hidden. Curves and creases. Broad back, wide neck. Large breasts bound tight. Folds of white shirt and tie and jacket. Hips concealed." — Stone Butch Blues

Essay

Embracing Butch

By Eliza Kostelanetz Schrader May 5, 2021

Reading and rereading Leslie Feinberg’s transformative 1993 novel, Stone Butch Blues.

Gender Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Clint Smith

By Clint Smith and Ben Purkert May 3, 2021

The writer and poet talks about novelistic nonfiction and why he thinks of his grandparents as monuments.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World Race

Interview

S. Kirk Walsh: The Blitz of Grief

By Karen Olsson April 29, 2021

The author of The Elephant of Belfast talks about grief, trauma, and the craft of writing.

Lit World

Interview

Elissa Washuta: “Living inside this empire is all that I will ever have.”

By Hillary Brenhouse April 28, 2021

The essayist on her new book, White Magic, and turning obsession into research.

Lit World

Interview

Caleb Azumah Nelson: “The confrontation with myself enabled me to find a brief freedom.”

By Mary Wang April 23, 2021

The author guides us through the tapestry of Black art, music, cinema, and literature that animates his debut novel, Open Water.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Gina Frangello: Truth and Consequences

By Kelly Thompson April 19, 2021

The author of the memoir Blow Your House Down talks about secrecy, accountability, and resisting happy endings.

Family & Relationships Lit World

Interview

Te-Ping Chen: “Every story unfolded as a series of surprises in the writing.”

By Maggie Lange March 23, 2021

The author of Land of Big Numbers talks about interweaving real life with the fantastic to write about today’s China.

Lit World

Review

Like Hell

By DJ Cashmere January 20, 2021

Relating their experiences of postpartum psychosis, two writers tap into broader truths about parenting and fear.

Gender Lit World

Essay

In the Land of Fiction and Fake News

By Elizabeth Mitchell January 15, 2021

A lie is a fiction made up to take away someone else’s power.

Lit World Politics

Interview

Back Draft: Lisa Dillman

By Ben Purkert and Lisa Dillman January 13, 2021

The translator on selecting her subjects, discovering the work of Andrés Barba, and the dangers of cultural hegemony.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World

Fiction

The Inland Sea

By Madeleine Watts January 8, 2021

And the phone rang, and it rang, and the woman screamed once more, and I connected to another number, and told her the ambulance service would answer as soon as they could, and it rang twelve times while she screamed and the siren blared above the windows while the rush-hour crowds streamed through Hyde Park.

Lit World

Interview

Alistair Ian Blyth: Translating Post-Soviet Moldova

By Alicia Kennedy January 7, 2021

Iulian Ciocan’s translator on bringing the Moldovan writer to a global audience.

Lit World

Interview

Barbara Demick: “I want to portray history through the eyes of the people living it.”

By Judith Hertog December 7, 2020

The journalist talks about how humans respond to crisis, reporting on repressive regimes, and why she wanted to write about Tibet.

Asia & Oceania Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Danez Smith

By Danez Smith and Ben Purkert December 3, 2020

The poet on a hard year for books, getting a rise out of an audience, and “Frankensteining” your archives.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Sejal Shah: “All my life, I have been biking with brakes on.”

By Kelly Sundberg November 9, 2020

This Is One Way To Dance is a timely collection about identity—where it comes from, what it means (and doesn’t), and what happens when we lose it.

Lit World

Interview

Sunisa Manning: Flexibility is Subversive

By Monica Sok November 2, 2020

The author of A Good True Thai talks about political imagination, writing about revolt, and liberating her characters.

Lit World

Interview

Claire Cronin: Blue Light Hauntings

By Maggie Lange October 28, 2020

Horror writer Claire Cronin discusses her new book, the digital uncanny, and how obsession demands a sideways approach.

Lit World

Commentary

Nairobi Rising

By Nanjala Nyabola October 27, 2020

Is Kenyan fiction experiencing a renaissance after decades of authoritarianism?

Africa Lit World

Interview

Anna Bruno: Can Women Win in Literature?

By Maria Kuznetsova October 26, 2020

The writer on “likeable” women, loyal dogs, and the luck of “breaking out.”

Lit World

Interview

Jennifer Hijazi: Climate and the Courts

By Amy Brady October 20, 2020

The climate reporter on what a Justice Amy Coney Barrett would mean for the environment.

Climate & Environment Lit World

Interview

Destiny O. Birdsong: Infinite Negotiations

By Lily Meyer October 12, 2020

“I like the idea that a poem is a dress that can fit the wearer.”

Lit World

Review

Temporary Paradise

By Ryan Ruby October 7, 2020

Stephanie LaCava’s The Superrationals tells the story of the rich and oblivious.

Class Lit World

Interview

Sarah Kasbeer: Dissecting the Damage

By Sara Petersen October 5, 2020

A new collection of essays considers the weight of patriarchy and the ordinary traumas of being a woman.

Gender Lit World

Review

Seeking Clarity

By Nikki Shaner-Bradford September 29, 2020

Emily Temple’s debut novel The Lightness tells the story of a “Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls.”

Lit World

Interview

Tiffany McDaniel: Spilling Secrets

By Carissa Chesanek September 28, 2020

The author of Betty talks about using family as the basis for fiction, and why she’s not smiling in her author photo.

Lit World

Review

The Music in Her Head

By Taylor Poulos September 22, 2020

David Hajdu’s novel offers a postmodern portrait of a postmodern artist.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Darin Strauss: Beyond Biography

By Michele Filgate September 21, 2020

The writer on blending fiction and memoir, and exploring the nature of celebrity.

Lit World

Interview

Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Everything that Made Us Still Belongs to Us

By Lisa Factora-Borchers September 17, 2020

The writer of a poetic trilogy on listening to ancestral voices, Black feminism, and seeing salvation in marine mammals.

Lit World

Interview

Shruti Swamy: The Intensity of Language

By Alexandra Chang September 4, 2020

The writer on confronting fear on the page, motherhood, and how stories help us make meaning.

Lit World

Review

On One’s Land

By Sarah Ruth Bates September 3, 2020

Kendra Atleework's memoir Miracle Country embraces a dangerous, and endangered, land.

Lit World

Review

Objects of Curiosity

By Adam Dalva September 2, 2020

Elena Ferrante's latest novel, The Lying Life of Adults, is a marvelous blur.

Lit World

Interview

Angie Thomas: We Have to Get Uncomfortable

By Freddie Coffey August 25, 2020

The bestselling YA author discusses how young people can make change, how grief shapes activism, and what it would mean to defund the police.

Lit World Race

Interview

Makenna Goodman: Motherhood and Isolation

By Nathan Scott McNamara August 17, 2020

The debut author of the The Shame discusses book hoarding, life in Vermont, and the weight of the past.

Lit World

Interview

Diane Cook: “Our humanity is what makes us so particularly wild.”

By Rachel Heng August 10, 2020

The author reflects on writing the physical world into fiction, what makes someone a “bad mom,” and what a wilderness community has in common with The Office.

Bodies & Nature Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

By Ben Purkert and Rachel Eliza Griffiths August 3, 2020

The poet on radical revision, our reflections, and photographing poets.

Back Draft Lit World

Review

Local Color

By Taylor Poulos July 30, 2020

In a new collection of stories, Matthew Baker offers an uneasy tour of a familiar place.

Lit World USA

Review

A Stranger in Town

By Olivia Parkes July 29, 2020

Catherine Lacey's latest novel, Pew, urges us to look beyond appearances.

Lit World Religion

Interview

Porochista Khakpour: I’ve Become Uninterested in Darkness

By Ann Tashi Slater July 21, 2020

Porochista Khakpour’s Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity tells a deeply moving—and often startling—story of being brown-skinned in America.

Lit World Race

Review

Writing Nearby

By Allisen Hae Ji Lichtenstein July 6, 2020

Cathy Park Hong’s essay collection Minor Feelings presents a fraught and considerate attempt to say what it means to be Asian American today.

Lit World Race

Interview

Garth Greenwell: Incredibly Vulnerable Beings

By Liv Lansdale July 2, 2020

"Art is about plunging oneself into the abyss."

Lit World

Interview

Megha Majumdar: What Will You Surrender?

By Madhuri Sastry June 26, 2020

The novelist discusses the politics of silence, questioning your idols, and the accumulation of shame.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio: DREAMer memoirs have their purpose. But that’s not what I set out to write.

By Lucas Iberico Lozada June 10, 2020

The writer on taking control of her narrative, her telepathic connection to Stephen Miller, and the army of mutants.

Lit World

Interview

Ken Liu: “We get to define the stories we want to be told about us.”

By Mary Wang May 28, 2020

Using photos of his text editors, mapmaking software, and 3D-printed prototypes, the writer talks about technology, myth, and telling stories during a pandemic.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Meredith Talusan: I’m Not Brave

By A.E. Osworth May 27, 2020

The writer and editor on resisting the expectations for minority voices, her French-inflected prose, and the complications that make life worthwhile.

Gender Lit World Race

Review

You Shall Also Love the Stranger

By Max Granger May 25, 2020

On John Washington’s The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond

Americas Lit World

Review

Latitudes of Longing: An Epic of Ghosts and Glaciers

By Taylor Poulos May 19, 2020

A debut novel reminds us that the earth itself is alive, and that even in our isolation we are members of a changing world.

Lit World

Interview

Stephanie Danler: Empowered by Choice

By Elizabeth Lothian May 14, 2020

The novelist and memoirist discusses generational trauma, developing compassion for oneself, and feeling empowered by choice.

Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Miranda Popkey

By Kate Dwyer and Miranda Popkey May 5, 2020

The novelist discusses the shape of a narrative, and the value of retyping.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World

Commentary

The Worlds We Find Ourselves In: Mark Doty and Jane Hirshfield in Conversation

By Mark Doty and Jane Hirshfield April 30, 2020

"At times when the outside world’s facts—or the heart’s facts—seem immovable, words still can move."

Lit World

Interview

Maisy Card: “There is this hazy quality to my family history that no amount of research can clarify.”

By Mickie Meinhardt April 28, 2020

The author unpacks the archival finds and emotional reckonings behind a novel that took her 12 years to write.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Review

Our Grievous Work

By Fathima Cader April 14, 2020

A review of The Crying Book by Heather Christle

Lit World

Review

The Porous Boundaries of Longing

By Adam Dalva April 8, 2020

Garth Greenwell's Cleanness is consciously, cannily, canonical.

Lit World

Commentary

Apparition

By Mark Doty March 26, 2020

Walt Whitman's boundless self persists, even 128 years after his death.

Lit World

Interview

Mark Bibbins and Paul Lisicky: Sooner or Later

By Paul Lisicky and Mark Bibbins March 20, 2020

The two writers and friends discuss the uses and abuses of nostalgia, cynicism, and trauma porn—and how their new books reflect their experiences of the AIDS crisis.

Lit World

Review

When All Is “Temporary,” Nothing to Hold Onto

By Maggie Lange March 13, 2020

Hilary Leichter’s destabilizing debut novel imagines a productivity-centric dystopia, not far off.

Lit World

Interview

Ariella Aïsha Azoulay: “It is not possible to decolonize the museum without decolonizing the world.”

By Sabrina Alli March 12, 2020

The political theorist argues that those whose worlds have been destroyed by five centuries of imperialism have the right to live near the objects that have been plundered from their culture.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Commentary

Ruff Reckoning

By Sharona Lin March 11, 2020

A look back at Kirsten Bakis’s 1997 novel Lives of the Monster Dogs

Lit World

Interview

Mira Jacob: I’m Not Going to Hold It for You

By Briana Gwin March 11, 2020

The acclaimed writer and graphic novelist on the importance of owning your shame.

Family & Relationships Lit World

Commentary

The Cover of My Face

By Meredith Talusan March 10, 2020

A trans author reflects on the fraught history of trans women’s memoir covers, and why she didn’t want her likeness on her own.

Bodies & Nature Gender Lit World

Review

Pigs in Shit

By Hunter Braithwaite March 9, 2020

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo's Animalia, and naturalism after nature.

Climate & Environment Lit World

Interview

Jenny Offill: The Doomy Bits

By Drew Johnson March 6, 2020

The author of Weather talks about confronting dread, navigating hope, and how to not write a bad book about climate change.

Climate & Environment Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Emily Wilson

By Ben Purkert and Emily Wilson February 24, 2020

The translator on being drawn to Homer, and the timelessness of toxic masculinity.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World

Review

Under a Microscope

By Taylor Poulos February 17, 2020

Baggage and beauty in Brandon Taylor’s novel Real Life

Lit World

Commentary

What About Your Grandmother, Jeanine?

By Aya de Leon February 12, 2020

The author of American Dirt has begun to claim her Puerto Rican heritage. But when the island needed her, she was busy writing an exploitative tale about Mexico.

Lit World Race

Commentary

Hanif Abdurraqib and the Performance of Grief

By Jay Deshpande February 10, 2020

On the particular braiding of grief and nostalgia that animates the poet-slash-critic's work.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Namwali Serpell: “I almost always find my errors productive.”

By Mary Wang January 21, 2020

Using archival photos, excerpts from language courses, and eBay finds, the author and critic explains how she mines mistakes for discoveries.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Carmen Maria Machado: “I speak into the Silence”

By Marissa Korbel December 18, 2019

The writer on intimate partner violence and the forces that made it a hard story to tell.

Family & Relationships Gender Lit World

Review

Everything Hiding the Secret of Its Taste

By Francesca Giacco December 5, 2019

Marie NDiaye’s new novel, The Cheffe, is an ode to wasted love.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Lilly Dancyger: There Are So Many Different Ways to Be Angry

By Jane Ratcliffe December 3, 2019

The editor of Burn It Down talks about the stabilizing benefits of women’s anger, the slow pace of change, and why it’s important to take up space on the subway.

Gender Lit World

Interview

Shannon Pufahl: Queering the Western

By Mickie Meinhardt November 21, 2019

A slow-burning epic, On Swift Horses paints a new picture of our American mythology.

Gender Lit World

Interview

Ben Fama: “Life begins once its valorization ends.”

By KrisAnne Madaus November 15, 2019

The poet talks about his latest book, the economic forces at work behind social media, and the stuffed animals in his life.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: John Murillo

By Ben Purkert and John Murillo October 21, 2019

The poet discusses chasing butterflies, and the perpetual relevance of political verse.

Back Draft Lit World

Interview

Victor LaValle: Imagine Downton Abbey, but with Smells

By Tobias Carroll October 11, 2019

The award-winning writer on editing his first anthology, horror versus sci-fi, and the American tradition of voter suppression.

Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Martín Espada

By Ben Purkert, Martín Espada, and Donald Hall August 12, 2019

The poet discusses his relationship with the late Donald Hall and the power of art, incarnate.

Back Draft Lit World

Review

Their Daughters Were Having Cats Instead of Children

By Jenessa Abrams July 22, 2019

A new collection of Bette Howland's short stories restores a powerful voice to the canon.

Lit World

Interview

Helen Phillips: “Living with the awareness of the abyss is probably a good thing.”

By Mary Wang July 19, 2019

The writer discusses why motherhood lends itself perfectly for speculative fiction—and the album that helped her during writing and labor.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Ayesha Harruna Attah: “I Write to Find out Who I Am”

By Arvind Dilawar July 5, 2019

How the discovery of an ancestor named only “the slave” inspired the Ghanaian author’s latest novel

Africa Lit World

Interview

Wayne Koestenbaum: “I use obscene as a term of praise.” 

By Mirene Arsanios July 2, 2019

Critic, essayist, and poet Wayne Koestenbaum talks about the reissue of his only novel to date, Circus, while offering a glimpse of his art works, unpublished writings, and family archive.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Viet Thanh Nguyen: Writing to Re-member

By Helen Scott June 17, 2019

The author discusses the refugee crisis, US foreign policy, and the problem of ‘narrative scarcity’ for marginalized and minority populations.

Lit World Politics

Essay

How I Wrote Certain of My (Fake) Poems

By Lucy Ives June 14, 2019

The author of Loudermilk reflects on “the weirdest form of history writing” she's ever done.

Lit World

Review

Guadalupe Nettel and the Extraterritoriality of Latin America

By Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Samuel Rutter May 23, 2019

In “After the Winter,” the novelist imagines a new relationship with ghosts, literary and otherwise.

Lit World

Review

In Search of an Ending

By Adam Dalva May 13, 2019

T Kira Madden's Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls charts a new path forward for millennial memoirs.

Lit World

Interview

Sheila Heti: “All of Living is Thinking”

By Kelley Deane McKinney May 7, 2019

The author discusses Judaism, visual art, and “the annoying, circular thinking that happens alongside living.”

Lit World

Interview

Laila Lalami: Home Is An In-Between World

By Anjali Enjeti May 1, 2019

The writer on migration, bigotry, and the inheritance of loss.

Lit World

Interview

Fernando A. Flores: “The oldest stories of this land were fantastical in essence”

By KrisAnne Madaus April 26, 2019

An emerging voice in fiction discusses writing as performance, translating rhythm into narrative, and writing the “anti-research” novel.

Americas Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

David Shields: Men Should Acknowledge Their Brokenness

By Cathy Alter April 16, 2019

The author discusses marriage, #MeToo, and how we are all vectors on a vast grid of animal drives.

Family & Relationships Lit World

Interview

Leanne Shapton: “The mix of proof, shock, and totally crappy images.”

By Mary Wang April 12, 2019

Writer and illustrator Leanne Shapton gives us a tour through her studio and shows us her mock layouts, her collection of ghost stories, and the pile of scrapbooks she found on Etsy.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Edward Hirsch

By Ben Purkert and Edward Hirsch April 5, 2019

The poet discusses insomnia, civility (or the lack thereof) in cities, and losing his sight.

Back Draft Lit World

Interview

Morgan Parker: “In the back of my mind I’m on a slave ship, yet I’m also here just telling you how it is.”

By Sasha Bonét March 22, 2019

Poet Morgan Parker shares a collection of screenshots that feed her audacity and fuel her despair.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Sandra Newman: “We need to reclaim utopianism”

By Alan Scherstuhl March 21, 2019

The author on being broke, inventing one’s own language, and being “good” at Twitter.

Lit World

Interview

Reema Zaman: “Once I saw how it all connected, I became free”

By Gerri Ravyn Stanfield March 7, 2019

The writer on how to rise from trauma and heal collective wounds.

Gender Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Natasha Trethewey

By Ben Purkert and Natasha Trethewey February 26, 2019

The acclaimed poet discusses a devastating fire, and the painterly in poetry.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Valeria Luiselli: “There are always fingerprints of the archive in my books.”

By Mary Wang February 12, 2019

The writer opens her archives to reveal maps, recordings, and questionnaires that have fueled her work—including photos that didn’t make it into her new novel.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Review

Valeria Luiselli’s Rapturous New Novel

By Rob Spillman February 8, 2019

The Lost Children Archive swims in the same historical currents as the great stories of journey and discovery that came before.

Readpolitik Lit World

Video

Lauren Groff: Stories Should Ask Difficult Questions

By Amy Brady February 6, 2019

Watch the video of our talk with Lauren Groff to hear her discuss climate change and her writing process.

Lit World

Interview

Anelise Chen: “Then I changed it to third-person clam, and that was exactly how it was meant to be.”

By Mary Wang January 18, 2019

The writer shares a collection of digital fragments that have shaped her practice, including an image depicting cycling exercises, a photo of Kafka’s diaries, and a video of her mother’s first time seeing snow.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Natasha Trethewey: Finding Her Calling in a Wound That Never Heals

By Chet’la Sebree January 9, 2019

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet on her recently released collection, the connections between personal and historical violence, and how she received her calling.

Lit World