Rage, Muse
The novels that revisit Greek myths, giving voice to the women who were scorned, wronged, or forgotten
By Wendy Smith Thursday, August 1, 2024
Martha Foley’s Granddaughters
What the esteemed literary editor never knew about the life of her troubled son, David Burnett
By Jay Neugeboren Thursday, July 18, 2024
To Catch a Sunset
Reflections on allergies, anxieties, and the limits of familial love
By Sandra Beasley Thursday, July 11, 2024
The Next New Thing
In architecture, the gulf between the traditional and the modern seems wider than ever before
By Witold Rybczynski Thursday, July 4, 2024
Imperfecta
Her brother’s disease leads a writer to challenge how we conceive of human abnormality in the emerging era of gene editing
By Pamela Haag Thursday, June 20, 2024
The Widower’s Lament
After the death of the poet Wendy Barker, her grieving husband turns to the literature of loss
By Steven G. Kellman Monday, March 4, 2024
The World at the End of a Line
The grandson of one of American literature’s Lost Generation novelists reflects on his namesake’s love of the sea
By John Dos Passos Coggin Thursday, April 13, 2023
The Goddess Complex
A set of revered stone deities was stolen from a temple in northwestern India; their story can tell us much about our current reckoning with antiquities trafficking
By Elizabeth Kadetsky Thursday, March 2, 2023
Last Rites and Comic Flights
A funeral in a 1984 Japanese film offers moments of slapstick amid the solemnity
By Pico Iyer Thursday, July 28, 2022
The Believer
When nobody would touch Joyce’s manuscript, Sylvia Beach stepped in
By Keri Walsh Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Intimacy
Revisiting the gritty Roman neighborhood of his youth, a writer discovers a world of his own invention
By André Aciman Sunday, June 1, 2008
Pullovers
Knitting a new life in America after a mother’s suicide, long ago in Japan
By Kyoko Mori Sunday, June 1, 2008
Her Own Society
When Emily Dickinson and her radical friend Thomas Wentworth Higginson met for the first time
By Brenda Wineapple Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Bout
When George Plimpton, the boyish editor of The Paris Review, went three rounds with the light-heavyweight champion of the world
By Blair Fuller Sunday, June 1, 2008
Buoyancy
In literature, as in life, the art of swimming isn’t hard to master
By Willard Spiegelman Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Broken Balance
The poet Robinson Jeffers warned us nearly a century ago of the ravages to nature we now face
By Edward Hoagland Saturday, March 1, 2008
Passing the Torch
Why the eons-old truce between humans and fire has burst into an age of megafires, and what can be done about it
By Stephen J. Pyne Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Liberal Imagination of Frederick Douglass
Honoring the emotions that give life to liberal principles
By Nick Bromell Saturday, March 1, 2008
What Kind of Father Am I?
Looking back at a lifetime of parenting sons and being parented by them
By James McConkey Saturday, March 1, 2008
Rome’s Gossip Columnist
When the first-century poet Martial turned his stylus on you, you got the point