Autobiography and Memoir

A man fights a losing battle with insomnia by counting sheep, 1940.

A Dispatch From the Land of the “Sleepless” A Dispatch From the Land of the “Sleepless”

A French writer’s memoir of her insomnia tries to understand how central sleep is to cultural and intellectual history.

Mar 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Alyse Burnside

The Many Faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Many Faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen The Many Faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Vietnamese American writer’s leap to the mainstream comes at a moment that demands his anti-colonialist perspective.

Mar 25, 2024 / Feature / Mari Uyehara

Lucy Sante

Lucy Sante and the Solitude and Solidarity of Transitioning Lucy Sante and the Solitude and Solidarity of Transitioning

In her new memoir, "I Heard Her Call My Name", Sante dissects her past in order to understand her future.

Mar 18, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephanie Burt

A drone view of the former stage at People's Park in Berkeley, California.

Should People’s Park Be Consigned to the Ash Heap of History? Should People’s Park Be Consigned to the Ash Heap of History?

Many argue that after five decades of resisting the University of California’s repeated attempts to reclaim the park, it’s time to let go of the past and move on. We disagree.

Jan 31, 2024 / Steve Wasserman, Paul Glusman, Judy Gumbo Albert, and Tom Dalzell

Palestinians carry some belongings as they flee Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 26, 2024

Letters From the Apocalypse Letters From the Apocalypse

Palestinian writers George Abraham and Sarah Aziza were in the middle of an ongoing correspondence. Then came October 7.

Jan 29, 2024 / George Abraham and Sarah Aziza

A child eats amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on December 29, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A Palestinian Whose Childhood Was Destroyed by War Pleads for Peace A Palestinian Whose Childhood Was Destroyed by War Pleads for Peace

Never letting children endure war again is the “never again” that might actually heal our wounded humanity.

Jan 3, 2024 / Ibtisam Barakat

A Memoir for the Post-Truth Era

A Memoir for the Post-Truth Era A Memoir for the Post-Truth Era

In Sarah Viren’s "To Name a Bigger Lie", she investigates how conspiracy theories have changed her relationship to the world.

Dec 21, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Julia Case-Levine

A party at Danceteria in New York City, 1990.

Sasha Frere-Jones, a Life Remixed Sasha Frere-Jones, a Life Remixed

Books & the Arts / December 19, 2023 Sasha Frere-Jones, a Life Remixed His beguiling memoir Earlier moves through the struggles and the sounds that changed his relationship…

Dec 19, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Piccarella

The author’s mother, 1927.

Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life Christina Sharpe and the Art of Everyday Black Life

In "Ordinary Notes", Sharpe considers Black culture “in all of its shade and depth and glow.”

Dec 13, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Omari Weekes

Stephen F. Cohen Russian Fate

“Russian Fate: A Memoir I’ll Never Write” “Russian Fate: A Memoir I’ll Never Write”

From the archives and files of Stephen F. Cohen.

Nov 29, 2023 / Katrina vanden Heuvel

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