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
Know Me Come Eat With Me
In the world of Ulysses, food turns out to be everything
By Flicka Small Thursday, June 9, 2022
It Happened One Day in June
Why Ulysses is as vital as ever— compelling, complex, and direct
By Robert J. Seidman Wednesday, June 1, 2022
The Bomb Next Door
Eighty years into the atomic age, U.S. nuclear power reactors have produced several million tons of radioactive waste—and we still have no idea how to dispose of it
By Thomas A. Bass Wednesday, June 1, 2022
The Lions and the San
How could a people survive for thousands of years with so many predators in their midst?
By Elizabeth Marshall Thomas Wednesday, June 1, 2022
My Family’s Siberian Exile
A writer pieces together the forgotten history of life in Stalin’s special settlements
By Megan Buskey Tuesday, September 4, 2018
The End of Literature
Even if writing is reduced to tweeted epigrams to keep readers reading, won’t writers still tell stories?
By Robert Coover Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Opioids and Paternalism
To help end the crisis, both doctors and patients need to find a new way to think about pain
By David Brown Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Still Wilderness
What are we feeling when we are feeling joy? And where inside us does that feeling reside?
By Christian Wiman Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Against Solidarity
As a writer, with a writer’s chronic need for detachment, I have avoided the ideology of gender
By Emily Fox Gordon Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Urban Wild
In slowly gentrifying Detroit, you might see a fox, or even a coyote, but where have all the stray dogs gone?
By Laura Bernstein-Machlay Tuesday, September 5, 2017
A Jane Austen Kind of Guy
I get it that women find my affinity for their writer intrusive, but her world has much to offer men, too
By William Deresiewicz Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Our Nuclear Future
We may think the bomb is back, but it never really went away
By Jeffrey Lewis Monday, June 5, 2017
Reading Thoreau at 200
Why is the seminal work of the great American transcendentalist held in such scorn today?
By William Howarth Monday, June 5, 2017
My Mongolian Spot
An ephemeral birthmark is a rare gift, connecting me to generations spanning the centuries
By Jennifer Hope Choi Monday, June 5, 2017
