Phillip Pullman

Philip Pullman’s Unorthodox Liberalism

The author’s atheism gets the attention, but his liberal, anti-authoritarian creed is what drives his work.

Katherine Taylor

Form Plus Function

Where the Wild Things Are

How a radical conservation effort is transforming a former farm into a verdant, biodiverse landscape—and challenging our ideas about what conservation looks like

Asterisks

This past weekend, two athletes made history in the marathon—but should their achievements give us pause?

Mural of businessmen

10 Famous Authors With Surprising Day Jobs

Or, 10 reasons to hang on to that office job

You Must Be Joking

A comic book, a movie, politics, and race

Sarbani Ghosh

Dream State Landscapes

The Banjo and the Ballot Box

How country music has been used on the campaign trail—and in political office

Visions of Another Realm

Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius

Language Unbound

How the words we use influence how we think

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

Above the River of Your Longing

Two new prompts

Casa Gorín

“The Purse-Seine” by Robinson Jeffers

Poems read aloud, beautifully

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

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