The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend

How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths

Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)

Divided Providence

Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War

Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine

Cudillero

“The Terrorist, He’s Watching” by Wislawa Szymborska

Poems read aloud, beautifully

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

Janet Loren Hill

Decontextualized viewpoints

Dying for Fashion

Dana Thomas on how our hunger for new clothes damages the environment and exploits workers

Epithalamium

“I got a collar for the boy, a nice leather number with steel studs that made him look a touch mean and inspired me to get myself a steel-studded camera harness, and off we’d walk, miles a day between jobs.”

“I Am Learning to Abandon the World” by Linda Pastan

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Alcaraz’s World

The future of men’s tennis is now

On the Line

Karen Pinchin on what tuna reveal about the fate of our oceans

What’s in a Name?

“Sea Rose” by H. D.

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Of Panic and Paranoia

Colin Dickey on the enduring power of secret societies and conspiracy theories

Scotch Eggs

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