SPOTLIGHT

A Splendor Wild and Terrifying

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

By Mark Phillips Thursday, July 17, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

A Splendor Wild and Terrifying

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

By Mark Phillips Thursday, July 17, 2025

Article

Shooting a Dog

During a deployment in Iraq, a young soldier confronts a fundamental paradox about the masculine temperament in wartime

Asturias Days

Lighting a Match

Read Me a Poem

“The Coming of Light” by Mark Strand

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Tammy West

Climate grief (without despair)

Asturias Days

Go Gentle

Read Me a Poem

Selections from Hafiz’s Little Book of Life

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Cover Story

In the Forest of the Colobus

At a Gambian nature reserve, troops of endangered monkeys—and numerous other creatures—enact a grand drama that plumbs the mysteries of life, death, and regeneration

Article

Notes From the Front

Henry Kissinger’s Vietnam diary shows that he knew the war was lost a decade before it ended

Book Reviews

All Dolled Up

How American Girl transformed the doll world—and why millennials love it so

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?

Article

America the Beautiful

The poem that became a hymn to the nation came about in troubled, polarizing times

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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

Article

‘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