SPOTLIGHT

The Two Ladies of Vermont

In 1875, the debate over whether to induct women into Phi Beta Kappa exposed a crack in the foundation of Western education

By Augustine Sedgewick | Tuesday, September 8, 2026

SPOTLIGHT

The Two Ladies of Vermont

In 1875, the debate over whether to induct women into Phi Beta Kappa exposed a crack in the foundation of Western education

By Augustine Sedgewick | Tuesday, September 8, 2026

PBK at 250

A Life in Stanzas

How Phi Beta Kappa shaped one poet’s beginnings

By Sandra Beasley | Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Read Me a Poem

“Ithaka” by C. P. Cavafy

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes | Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Tuning Up

Save the Meramec

On law, literature, and the Indiana bat

By Dennis Drabelle | Monday, September 7, 2026

Smarty Pants Podcast

Call It Macaroni

Susan Stryker on her new book, Changing Gender

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday, September 4, 2026

Tuning Up

Adding Wimsey to My Life

How I fell in love with a fictional detective

By Paula Marantz Cohen | Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Asturias Days

On Returning

By Clellan Coe | Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Read Me a Poem

“Everybody Who Is Dead” by Frank Stanford

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes | Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Next Line, Please

“In Regard to Your Submission”

By David Lehman | Monday, August 31, 2026

Gilt Trip

Who Is the Samurai, and Who Is the Prisoner?

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films show that when it comes to history, some blanks aren’t meant to be filled

By Jessa Crispin | Friday, August 28, 2026

Asturias Days

Marina

By Clellan Coe | Friday, April 5, 2019

Read Me a Poem

“Gus: the Theatre Cat” by T. S. Eliot

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes | Friday, April 5, 2019

Measure by Measure

In Praise of Chadwick

Remembering one of American music’s founding fathers

By Sudip Bose | Thursday, April 4, 2019

View from Rue Saint-Georges

Family Matters

Closing my distance from a distant relation

By Thomas Chatterton Williams | Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Storytelling in the Podcast Age

Critics allege that the Fourth Estate is biased and out of touch. Here’s how one band of podcasters breaks down barriers between journalists and their audience.

By James McWilliams | Tuesday, April 2, 2019

A New Genre

By David Lehman | Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Poetry

April: A Sonnet

By Henry Allen | Monday, April 1, 2019

Portrait of the Artist

Heather MacKenzie

Seismic Landscapes

By Noelani Kirschner | Monday, April 1, 2019

Read Me a Poem

“Bessie Dreaming Bear” by Marnie Walsh

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes | Friday, March 29, 2019

current issue

“Being honored by a society is different from being honored by society—but isn’t that the very point of a society? To celebrate and advocate for the wider recognition of a special set of values so that they might in time reshape society at large?”—Augustine Sedgewick, “The Two Ladies of Vermont”

Plus: The Phi Beta Kappa Society turns 250, Emily Bernard on her complicated obsession with Carl Van Vechten, Joshua Bodwell loses (part of) a tooth, and much more