High Art and Low Chairs
Plus: a book’s journey from foreign lands to American shelves, and espionage
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, October 21, 2016
What Our Politicians Can’t Bring Themselves to Say
(And why the personal essay might help)
By Phillip Lopate Friday, October 21, 2016
Pawns for Fascism
This piece from 1937 envisions the forces that make a demagogue like Trump possible
By Reinhold Niebuhr Friday, October 14, 2016
The Root Cause
Padraic X. Scanlan tells the real history of the Irish Potato Famine
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, March 14, 2025
“After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, March 11, 2025
“Writing in the Dark” by Denise Levertov
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Tiger Mom
At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind
By Elizabeth Kadetsky Monday, March 3, 2025
Learning to Be Social
What might Rousseau teach us about how to live with others?