SPOTLIGHT

“The Overture”

By David Lehman Friday, April 18, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

“The Overture”

By David Lehman Friday, April 18, 2025

Article

In the Matter of the Commas

For the true literary stylist, this seemingly humble punctuation mark is a matter of precision, logic, individuality, and music

Asturias Days

Savory or Apples?

Read Me a Poem

“Wild Peaches” by Elinor Wylie

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Smarty Pants Podcast

Muscle Memory

Michael Joseph Gross on the importance of strength, past and present

Book Reviews

Doing Nothing Is Everything

An areligious writer finds peace in a Benedictine monastery

Asturias Days

Facts of the Case

Read Me a Poem

“Campo dei Fiori” by Czesław Miłosz

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Helina Metaferia

An army of activists

Article

Lessons From Harlem

A white blues player’s streetside education

Cover Story

Paying to Be Locked Up

Private prison companies treat immigrant detainees like convicted criminals—and reap huge profits from the people they hold

Letter From

New Zealand: Beauty and the Beef

Will the nation’s identity continue to be pastoral, or will its urbanites create a hip young image of environmental awareness?

Works in Progress

The Delta Blues

A photographer documents former boomtowns in the South

Books Essay

A Pleasure to Read You

Shouldn’t literature enchant, surprise, and teach us? And to make this happen, shouldn’t we be the most expert readers we can be?

Essays

Black Lives and the Boston Massacre

John Adams’s famous defense of the British may not be, as we’ve always understood it, the ultimate
expression of principle and the rule of law

Book Reviews

Of Faith and Tragedy

A scholar of early Christianity on how her work informed her life

Portrait of the Artist

Dianna Frid

Interwoven Text

Works in Progress

Descent Into the Underworld

An excerpt from “How Do the Dead Walk”

Book Reviews

The Portrait Master

Known for rendering others, a writer turns his attention inward

NEWSLETTER

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current issue

“In Tunisia, the stones once brutalized by the Romans are now being protected from the soil. Here in New Mexico, the ground has been encouraged to swallow up the remains. The stones of this American Carthage whisper almost nothing of its past, choked by rising earth.”—Charles G. Salas, “American Carthage”

Plus: Elizabeth Kadetsky brings new meaning to the phrase “tiger mom,” Jessie Wilde profiles the scientists keeping us safe from space rocks, and Teri Michele Youmans follows her father’s memory to Enewetak Atoll

“In Tunisia, the stones once brutalized by the Romans are now being protected from the soil. Here in New Mexico, the ground has been encouraged to swallow up the remains. The stones of this American Carthage whisper almost nothing of its past, choked by rising earth.”—Charles G. Salas, “American Carthage”

Plus: Elizabeth Kadetsky brings new meaning to the phrase “tiger mom,” Jessie Wilde profiles the scientists keeping us safe from space rocks, and Teri Michele Youmans follows her father’s memory to Enewetak Atoll

Article

Asteroid Hunters

The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks

Book Reviews

Who Would I Be Off My Meds

Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering?

Cover Story

Tiger Mom

At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind

Article

American Carthage
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Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present

Commonplace Book

Spring 2025

Article

Asteroid Hunters

The scientists and engineers who defend our planet day and night from potentially hazardous space rocks

Book Reviews

Who Would I Be Off My Meds

Can weaning oneself off pharmaceuticals ease the cycle of perpetual suffering?

Cover Story

Tiger Mom

At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind

Article

American Carthage
loading

Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present

Commonplace Book

Spring 2025