Books & the Arts

Kara Walker, “Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine),” 2024 © Kara Walker.

The Art and Automatons of Kara Walker The Art and Automatons of Kara Walker

Walker’s new installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art offers us visions from both the past and future.

Feb 10, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Rachel Hunter Himes

Khawla Ibraheem in “A Knock on the Roof.”

A Snapshot of a Mother’s Life in Gaza Under Occupation A Snapshot of a Mother’s Life in Gaza Under Occupation

Khawla Ibraheem’s play A Knock on the Roof examines how the Israeli military terrorizes Palestinians in their most intimate and private spaces: their homes.

Feb 6, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Ahmed Moor

“Summer Interior” by Edward Hopper, 1909. Located at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Vigdis Hjorth and the Novel of Ugly Love Vigdis Hjorth and the Novel of Ugly Love

In If Only, the Norwegian novelist distills a story of romance into all its private discomfort and claustrophobia. Its intense ambivalence in regards to love feels truer to life. ...

Feb 4, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace

The Elion-Hitchings Building in 2020 before its demolition.

The Dubious Return of the Brutalists The Dubious Return of the Brutalists

Why the stark 20th-century architectural style is back in vogue.

Feb 3, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Brook

The Art of Reading Like a Translator

The Art of Reading Like a Translator The Art of Reading Like a Translator

In The Philosophy of Translation, Damion Searls investigates the essential differences—and similarities—between the task of the translator and of the writer.

Jan 30, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer

Mikhail Lermontov's “Memory of Caucasus,” 1838.

The Reckless Creation of Whiteness The Reckless Creation of Whiteness

In The Unseen Truth, Sarah Lewis examines how an erroneous 18th-century story about the “Caucasian race” led to a centuries of prejudice and misapprehension.

Jan 29, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Erin L. Thompson

The Polymath of Pittsburgh

The Polymath of Pittsburgh The Polymath of Pittsburgh

Garielle Lutz is one of America’s great writers. Why has her literary genius gone unnoticed?

Jan 28, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Kolitz

Caroline Blackwood, 1953.

Caroline Blackwood’s Graceful Nightmares Caroline Blackwood’s Graceful Nightmares

The writer and socialite's gothic fictions were also cutting works of social comedy.

Jan 23, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Isabella Trimboli

David Lynch, 2002.

David Lynch’s Guts David Lynch’s Guts

His visceral films, which reflect the best and worst of American life, affected viewers in realms both conscious and unconscious.

Jan 22, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi

The Haunting of Delmore Schwartz

The Haunting of Delmore Schwartz The Haunting of Delmore Schwartz

In his Collected Poems, his verse becomes an index for a life lived between ambition, pain, and disappointment.

Jan 22, 2025 / Books & the Arts / David Yaffe

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