The Writer in the Family
The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero
By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025
The Weight of a Stone
Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology
By Megan Craig Thursday, January 2, 2025
Verde
Learning a foreign language isn’t just about improving cognitive function—it can teach us to sense the world anew
By Jesse Lee Kercheval Thursday, December 12, 2024
Aging Out
Many of us do not go gentle into that good night
By Anne Matthews Thursday, December 5, 2024
Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel
Under a Spell Everlasting
Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, published a century ago, tells of a world unable to free itself from the cataclysm of war
By Samantha Rose Hill Monday, December 2, 2024
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Monday, December 2, 2024
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine
The Fair Fields 
Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil
By Rosanna Warren Monday, December 2, 2024
Ideology as Anatomy
How shifting ideas about women’s bodies have affected their lives
By Sierra Bellows Monday, December 2, 2024
Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts by Helen King
Five Poems
Then This, The Conversation, June, Tendrils of Trumpet Vine, Frame Structure With Post and Lattice 2, Breath
By Forrest Gander Thursday, September 1, 2022
Mullet Street
On New Orleans’s most famous thoroughfare, it’s always 1986
By Wayne Curtis Thursday, August 18, 2022
Morals, Meaning, and Nonsense
Ethical inquiry requires lived experience, not just logical examination
By Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen Monday, August 15, 2022
Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman
Different People, Different Stories
On the complexities of lumping psychiatric patients into categories
By Kathryn Tabb Monday, August 1, 2022
he Ceiling Outside: The Science and Experience of the Disrupted Mind by Noga Arikha
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
Polish Lessons
Four decades ago, a young American found himself in Warsaw during turbulent, extraordinary times
By Thomas Swick Monday, July 18, 2022
More Than a ‘Mere Echo’
English versions of foreign literature must stand on their own
By Lauren Elkin Monday, July 11, 2022
Translating Myself and Othersby Jhumpa Lahiri
What a Long, Strange Trip It Was
The explosive writer who created worlds alien and mundane
By Madison Smartt Bell Thursday, June 30, 2022
I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhysby Miranda Seymour
A Remembrance of Places Both Empty and Full
The divine, stark photographs of Robert Adams
By Megan Craig Thursday, June 23, 2022
