SPOTLIGHT

Puzzled

In the world of jigsaws, there can be a fine line between productivity and pleasure

By Susannah Pratt Friday, July 18, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

Puzzled

In the world of jigsaws, there can be a fine line between productivity and pleasure

By Susannah Pratt Friday, July 18, 2025

Web Essays

Back to School

A return to reading as a private and a public act

Smarty Pants Podcast

Bite Club

Why the 17th-century vampire still haunts us today

Article

A Prophet and a President

Why Black biography matters

Asturias Days

The Right One

Read Me a Poem

“When You Are Old” by W. B. Yeats

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Book Reviews

Poet of the Extreme

A noted novelist considers the life of an American master

Web Essays

What Squid Game Is Really About 

How decades of Korean trauma have spawned a pop culture phenomenon 

Smarty Pants Podcast

Haunting the Homeland

Germany has all but forgotten the frenzy of witch trials and wonder doctors of the postwar period—but why?

Web Essays

Two Poets and a Word

The whole of creation, in just three letters

Article

A Splendor Wild and Terrifying

Lost in the woods, a writer confronts the duality of nature

Asturias Days

Flummoxed

Read Me a Poem

“Parachutes, My Love, Could Carry Us Higher” by Barbara Guest

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Jeanne F. Jalandoni

Weaving past and present together

Smarty Pants Podcast

Michael Douglas Explains It All

Jessa Crispin on what the actor’s roles tell us about the crisis of masculinity

Article

On (Middle-Class) Frugality

Does cutting costs mean robbing oneself of life’s small delights?

Asturias Days

Snake in the Grass

Read Me a Poem

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Next Line, Please

Why Go On?

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current issue

Cover Story

Jeremy Spoke in Class Today

On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake

Book Reviews

The Rascal of Pont-Aven

Reassessing a renowned painter’s troubling life

Article

Who Killed the Mercy Man?
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An obscure murder keeps resurfacing in Black story and song

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‘God-Knows-What-Kind-of-Classic’
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Why shouldn’t America’s federal buildings speak to us in a language encompassing the old as well as the new?

Tuning Up

A Fight With Cudgels
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Meditations on death, Goya, and the immutability of art

Cover Story

Jeremy Spoke in Class Today

On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake

Book Reviews

The Rascal of Pont-Aven

Reassessing a renowned painter’s troubling life

Article

Who Killed the Mercy Man?
loading

An obscure murder keeps resurfacing in Black story and song

Article

‘God-Knows-What-Kind-of-Classic’
loading

Why shouldn’t America’s federal buildings speak to us in a language encompassing the old as well as the new?

Tuning Up

A Fight With Cudgels
loading

Meditations on death, Goya, and the immutability of art