The Censor in the Mirror
It’s not only what the Chinese Propaganda Department does to artists, but what it makes artists do to their own work
By Ha Jin Monday, September 1, 2008
The Torture Colony
In a remote part of Chile, an evil German evangelist built a utopia whose members helped the Pinochet regime perform its foulest deeds
By Bruce Falconer Monday, September 1, 2008
Potted History
Learning more about slave life in South Carolina from a legendary potter-poet
By Scott Reynolds Nelson Monday, September 1, 2008
Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave By Leonard Todd
Where Does American History Begin?
Mixing geography with invention, the first explorers and mapmakers made the New World a very hard place to pin down
By Ted Widmer Monday, September 1, 2008
Something Called Terrorism
In a speech given at Harvard 22 years ago
and never before published, Leonard Bernstein
offered a warning that remains timely
By Leonard Bernstein Monday, September 1, 2008
Shaking Habit’s House
Critic James Wood preaches a return to the realism of Flaubert
By Sarah L. Courteau Monday, September 1, 2008
How Fiction Works By James Wood, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Most Important Election in History
Is it possible to elect a president without invoking that phrase?
By Christopher Clausen Monday, September 1, 2008
The Writer in the Family
The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero
By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025
The Weight of a Stone
Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology
By Megan Craig Thursday, January 2, 2025
“The Horses” by Edwin Muir
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, December 31, 2024
The Snow Maiden
Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice
By Stephanie Bastek Monday, December 30, 2024
Ho Ho Horror
Why not make this Christmas a little darker?