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

Interview

Kiese Laymon: “I Didn’t Want to Be a Silent Survivor of Moral Failure Anymore”

By Lacy M. Johnson December 19, 2018

The writer on his memoir, Heavy, and the role of truth-telling and loneliness in artmaking.

Family & Relationships Lit World Race

Interview

Miscellaneous Files: Jabari Asim

By Mary Wang December 10, 2018

The writer Jabari Asim on stories as instruments of power, how he places himself in the lineage of African American literature, and how writers of color should navigate an onerous publishing landscape.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Helen Schulman’s Many Worlds

By Phineas Lambert December 7, 2018

The best-selling author on invasive technology, her new novel, and the craft of writing.

Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Catherine Barnett

By Ben Purkert and Catherine Barnett November 27, 2018

The poet discusses the separation of mind and body—literally and figuratively—the transformation of influence, and imagining an audience.

Back Draft Lit World

Review

The Character of Berlin

By Rob Spillman November 20, 2018

A sprawling chronicle of the Nazis' rise to power, decades in the making, sheds light on both the present and the past.

Readpolitik History Lit World

Interview

Miscellaneous Files: Ottessa Moshfegh

By Mary Wang November 6, 2018

The writer Ottessa Moshfegh on the line between sensitivity and sentimentality, the universal experience of sadness, and the influence of Nirvana.

Miscellaneous Files Lit World

Interview

Lacy M. Johnson: Moving the Conversation Toward Justice

By Kelly Thompson October 17, 2018

The author on her new book of essays about activism, the failure to reckon, and extracting power from pain.

Lit World

Review

A Deliberately Wonky Sense of Morality

By Michele Moses October 5, 2018

On Andrew Martin’s debut novel, Early Work.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Miscellaneous Files: Olivia Laing

By Mary Wang October 4, 2018

In the first installment of our multimedia interview series, Olivia Laing uses screenshots to explain how the secretarial parts of writing can be both pleasurable and productive.

Miscellaneous Files Arts & Culture Lit World

Review

I Wish I Could Leave It at That

By Adam Dalva October 3, 2018

Roxane Gay’s memoir is a testament to her skill with empathetic connection.

Lit World

Interview

Merve Emre: Portals to Self Discovery

By Regan Penaluna October 2, 2018

The author, scholar, and critic on her new book about personality testing, and the importance of holding women writers to high standards.

Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Cedar Sigo

By Cedar Sigo and Ben Purkert September 28, 2018

The poet on escaping the confines of academia, striving for imperfection, and moving back home.

Back Draft Lit World

Essay

The Franz Kafka Marriage Manual for Young Ladies

By Rebecca Schuman September 25, 2018

What to do with the art of a man more monstrous than the monster he created?

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Cynthia Cruz

By Ben Purkert and Cynthia Cruz August 23, 2018

The poet on perfectionism, surrendering control, and a poetry that reflects the practical realities of American life today.

Back Draft Lit World

Review

Life on Mars

By Rob Spillman August 9, 2018

Rachel Kushner's new novel, The Mars Room, is a study in empathy.

Readpolitik Justice Lit World

Review

A Little More than Kin

By Adam Dalva August 6, 2018

Justin Torres's We the Animals, which has been adapted into a film, is difficult to pin down — but all the more powerful for it.

Family & Relationships Lit World

Interview

John Fanning: Questioning is Political

By Amanda Dennis July 19, 2018

The writer on resistance history in French Occitanie, dropping out to drop in, and cultivating spiritual presence as an artist.

Lit World

Interview

Brian Turner: A Music That Suits Our Time on the Planet

By Rick Moody July 17, 2018

The poet on his debut album—a tribute to and collaboration with his late wife, by The Interplanetary Acoustic Team—and the role of music in literary practice.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

The American Bourgeoisie Are the Revolutionaries

By Ryan Chapman July 13, 2018

The writer on contemporary political fiction, his favorite court decision, and why he values ethics over empathy.

Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Heather Christle

By Ben Purkert and Heather Christle July 11, 2018

The poet discusses the spark of life in a poem and the intersection of the imaginative and the political.

Back Draft Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Victoria Chang

By Victoria Chang and Ben Purkert June 6, 2018

The poet on her revision process and coping with grief.

Back Draft Lit World

Interview

Lisa Wells: Tapering of Extremes

By Michael Juliani May 22, 2018

The writer reflects on the beef between poets, enjoying every day miracles, and practicing selfless listening.

Lit World

Essay

Some Other I Before Me

By Joseph Osmundson May 21, 2018

On books as mentors for those of us who grew up in the wake of HIV/AIDS.

Lit World

Review

Too God, Too Human

By Rob Spillman May 17, 2018

Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel is a powerful exploration of the liminal.

Readpolitik Africa Lit World

Interview

Dorothy Allison: Tender to the Bone

By Amy Wright May 16, 2018

The acclaimed author on working-class anger and the glory in literature.

Class Lit World

Interview

Back Draft: Carl Phillips

By Carl Phillips and Ben Purkert May 3, 2018

The inaugural installment of a new series about the revision process in poetry. First up: Carl Phillips.

Back Draft Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

James Sherry: Leadership is Magnetic as Power is Aphrodisiacal

By Ben Tripp April 27, 2018

The poet on reviving Machiavelli for our times.

Lit World

Interview

Striving for Purpose

By Phineas Lambert April 19, 2018

Meg Wolitzer discusses politics and process in the context of her new novel, The Female Persuasion.

Lit World

Interview

Storytelling in the Age of Populism

By Kenneth Goldsmith and Mikkel Rosengaard March 28, 2018

Kenneth Goldsmith and Mikkel Rosengaard in conversation.

Lit World

Interview

Leslie Jamison: Storytelling and Sobriety

By Rachel Veroff March 27, 2018

The acclaimed writer talks recovery, responsibility, and reforming the culture by which we treat addiction.

Lit World

Essay

Looking for Katalin Street

By Rebecca Chace March 26, 2018

A real-life exploration of Magda Szabo's novel.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Eileen Myles: When Dogs and Mothers Die

By Carlie Fishgold March 14, 2018

Publishers wanted Myles to write another book that was “alcoholic, lesbian, and wild.” Instead, the poet wrote about the death of their beloved dog.

Lit World

Interview

Back Draft

By Ben Purkert March 2, 2018

An exploration of the revision process in poetry.

Back Draft Lit World

Essay

Churning the Days

By Hunter Braithwaite March 1, 2018

A collection of James Salter’s magazine writing often disappoints, because he’s only human.

Lit World

Essay

In Our House, We Speak in Hybrid Tongues

By Jenessa Abrams February 20, 2018

Communing with the author of the new short-story collection Hybrid Creatures.

Lit World Technology & the Future

Interview

Rachel Lyon on the Amoral Artist

By Matthew Daddona February 15, 2018

The novelist on her new book, Self-Portrait with Boy, the nature of photography, and the ethics of creating.

Lit World

Lives

I Used to Give Men Mercy

By Terese Mailhot February 12, 2018

On the journey from webcam girl to professor and breakout memoirist, and not letting white academia drag her down.

Lit World Race

Essay

A Partnership with God

By Shiva Rahbaran February 2, 2018

The novelist Nicholas Mosley saw humanity’s salvation at the confluence of love, faith, and technology.

Lit World

Fiction

Good Luck Have Fun

Fiction by Bill Cheng December 29, 2017

You got to be tough & I ain’t talking just in-game; I mean in yr life, son. IRL.

Lit World

Review

How to Tell a Shattered Story

By Aurvi Sharma December 21, 2017

Arundhati Roy's latest novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, is an elegy to graveyards.

Lit World

Review

A Case for the Mental Health Memoir

By Charlotte Lieberman December 19, 2017

First-person testimonies are providing a vocabulary for mental illness that is honest and destigmatizing.

Health Lit World

Essay

Surrealist Refugees in the Tropics

By Terese Svoboda November 17, 2017

Jacqueline Lamba, the scandalously beautiful artist and aquatic burlesque performer who enchanted Frida Kahlo, meets Suzanne Cesaire, known as the Black Panther of Négritude.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Interview

Iain Sinclair: Walking Is A Democracy

By Teresa O'Connell November 16, 2017

The author and filmmaker on his new book, London's changing culture, and why walking is a political act.

Lit World

Interview

Kevin Young on The Power and Politics of Hoaxes

By Elisa Gonzalez November 13, 2017

Incoming New Yorker Poetry Editor Kevin Young discusses his new book, Bunk.

Lit World

Commentary

Armistice Day in the Virtual Trenches

By Ed Winstead November 11, 2017

The First World War ended a century ago, but its violence persists.

Arts & Culture Conflict History Lit World

Review

Pessimism of the Intellect

By Daniel Lefferts November 6, 2017

On a new collection of Susan Sontag’s short fiction.

Lit World

Review

An Inspired Time for American Poetry

By Ben Purkert October 19, 2017

Fifteen debut poetry collections that define the cultural moment.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Fiction

Midwestern Girl Is Tired of Appearing in Your Short Stories

Fiction by Gwen E. Kirby October 18, 2017

The protagonist barely notices her (though he does spare a moment for those ample breasts).

Lit World USA

Interview

Eve Ewing: Other Means to Liberation

By Kiese Laymon October 17, 2017

The poet and sociologist’s gleefully unorthodox work on blackness.

Lit World Race

Interview

Sholeh Wolpé: If I Do Not Translate, It’s A Sin

By Theodore McCombs October 5, 2017

The Iranian-American poet on translation as a salve for cultural divisions.

Conflict Lit World MENA

Essay

Drain the Swamp

By Hunter Braithwaite September 28, 2017

Over fifty years ago, author J.G. Ballard was giving us words for today's hurricanes.

Climate & Environment Lit World

Interview

Jesmyn Ward: Sing, Unburied, Sing

By Deirdre Sugiuchi September 21, 2017

The author on her latest novel, transforming archetypes, and a changing Mississippi.

Lit World

Essay Review

Semiotics Has Never Been More Thrilling

By Jordan A. Rothacker September 14, 2017

Laurent Binet’s latest novel is a great big joke, and a crash course in literary theory.

Lit World

Review

When White Supremacy Gets Road Rage

By Emma Copley Eisenberg September 12, 2017

Why it matters that James Fields chose a car as his weapon in Charlottesville, VA.

Lit World Race

Interview

Suzy Hansen: The Rest of the World Knows

By Nicholas Bredie September 7, 2017

The writer on living abroad in Istanbul and the fraught concepts of American innocence and empire.

Conflict Lit World Politics

Interview

Victor LaValle: Fairy Tales Redux

By Irene Plax August 24, 2017

The novelist discusses his latest book, The Changeling, and imagining the deaths of your children.

Lit World

Interview

In Defense of Imagination

By Ada Limón August 16, 2017

The poets Matthew Zapruder and Ada Limón discuss Zapruder’s new prose book, Why Poetry.

Lit World

Interview

Luljeta Lleshanaku: Words Are Delicate Instruments

By Lucia Duero July 24, 2017

The Albanian poet speaks to her translator about coming of age under dictatorship and understanding her own words in another language.

Europe Lit World

Review

Kafka’s Selfies

By Jesse Sherwood July 20, 2017

A new collection highlights Kafka's Kardashian-esque self-reflection.

Lit World

Review

Drawn and Quartered

By Hunter Braithwaite July 18, 2017

Sarah Sentilles’s new book offers a meditation on war, art, torture, and memory.

Conflict Lit World

Review

A Vanishing Hong Kong

By Tammy Lai-Ming Ho July 12, 2017

The latest story collection from the Hong Kong Writers Circle imagines dystopian futures.

Asia & Oceania Lit World

Commentary

Rebranding the Civic, From Private Prisons to Border Patrol

By Liza St. James May 16, 2017

Dispatches from the PEN World Voices Festival.

Lit World USA

Review

Tense Because We Lived

By Tracy O’Neill May 9, 2017

On Robert Lopez's latest novel.

Arts & Culture Lit World

Review

Lidia Yuknavitch Writes the End of the World

By Rachel Veroff May 3, 2017

Self-destruction as resistance in The Book of Joan.

Lit World

Essay

On Impractical Urges

By Ayana Mathis April 3, 2017

What America's cult of success hates to admit: race and class can shape not just the path to realizing ambitions, but even whether we recognize our right to have them.

Lit World Work & Money