The Writer in the Family

The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero

Birthday Boy

“The Horses” by Ted Hughes

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Amy Wetsch

Life, magnified

The Weight of a Stone

Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology

New Year, Old Year

“The Horses” by Edwin Muir

Poems read aloud, beautifully

The Snow Maiden

Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice

Ho Ho Horror

Why not make this Christmas a little darker?

A Story for Christmas

To Accept What Cannot Be Helped

At 80, a woman with a fatal disease knows she doesn’t want to die in the hospital and discovers, with her family, what that really means

Forgiveness

The Seduction

After years of favoring the endurance-test approach to teaching literature, a professor focuses on how to make books spark to life for her students

Adonis

The Passionate Encounter

A noted midcentury critic has much to say in his journal about his fellow writers and the literary world they shared

Reassessing Rossellini

Restoration of Rome Open city, the director’s masterpiece, prompts a look at why he later retreated from the neorealism it introduced

Tangled Up in Dylan

The enduring appeal of a legendary American songwriter

Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968–2010By Greil Marcus Bob Dylan in America By Sean Wilentz

Why I Don’t Give Tips on How to Write

Ode to Joy

What makes us happy?

Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science By Sissela Bok

Girl Power

The enigma who ruled her world

Cleopatra: A Life By Stacy Schiff

● NEWSLETTER

Please enter a valid email address
That address is already in use
The security code entered was incorrect
Thanks for signing up