Books & the Arts

Nation Poetry

Proper Fat Proper Fat

Thin with disgust Fat with wordless joy And patience Thin like the opening of the gate You pray you’ll make it through Fat like the other side Fat with pubescence With moonstone or…

May 16, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Omotara James

Big Bill Haywood, Adolph Lessing, and Carlo Tresca, Paterson, New Jersey, 1913.

The Wobblies and the Dream of One Big Union The Wobblies and the Dream of One Big Union

A new history examines the lost promise and fierce persecution of the IWW.

May 15, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Michael Kazin

Another Side of W.E.B. Du Bois

Another Side of W.E.B. Du Bois Another Side of W.E.B. Du Bois

A conversation with Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts about Du Bois's thinking on imperialism, transnational solidarity, and their recent collection, W.E.B. Du Bois: International T...

May 10, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Chuck Klosterman, illustration by Diane Zhou

Chuck Klosterman’s Decade of Ambivalence Chuck Klosterman’s Decade of Ambivalence

In The Nineties, he confronts an era that defined his career as a critic and waxes nostalgic for a mythic, pre-polarization America. 

May 9, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Gordon

Buenos Aires, in the evening light, circa 1940

Santiago Amigorena’s Novel of the Shoah and Latin America Santiago Amigorena’s Novel of the Shoah and Latin America

In The Ghetto Within, the Argentine novelist considers the dark shadow that the Holocaust has cast not only on Europe but also on Latin America.

May 8, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans

The Conviction of Lucinda Williams

The Conviction of Lucinda Williams The Conviction of Lucinda Williams

The Nation spoke with the singer-songwriter about her political commitments, her battles with the music industry, and her new memoir Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You.

May 4, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Emma Hager

Illustration from Art Spiegelman’s MAUS

The Many Afterlives of Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” The Many Afterlives of Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”

Book bans have shined a new spotlight on the graphic novel. What does that mean for the comic's legacy?

May 3, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jillian Steinhauer

Alasdair MacIntyre and Richard Rorty’s Lifelong Argument

Alasdair MacIntyre and Richard Rorty’s Lifelong Argument Alasdair MacIntyre and Richard Rorty’s Lifelong Argument

While in many ways their careers ran parallel to each other, the two philosophers disagreed about whether liberalism could—and should—be saved.

May 2, 2023 / Books & the Arts / George Scialabba

The Disappearing Acts of Haruki Murakami

The Disappearing Acts of Haruki Murakami The Disappearing Acts of Haruki Murakami

In his new book, the novelist examines what it takes to become a great writer.

May 1, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Rumaan Alam

Hazel Jane Plante

Hazel Jane Plante’s Novel of Art, Sex, and Rock and Roll Hazel Jane Plante’s Novel of Art, Sex, and Rock and Roll

Any Other City, a fictionalized memoir of a trans musician, interrogates the conventional narrative possibilities offered to trans writers.

Apr 27, 2023 / Books & the Arts / McKenzie Wark

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