Books & the Arts

portrait of Salman Rushdie

The Long Shadow of the Fatwa The Long Shadow of the Fatwa

We don’t know the motives behind the attack on Rushdie yet, but it is just one more threat to his life in a series of them.

Aug 15, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jeet Heer

The Broken College Ranking System

The Broken College Ranking System The Broken College Ranking System

A fairer rankings system would highlight universities like Georgia State and CUNY, whose mission is to help students from poor families enter the middle class, rather than fixating...

Aug 15, 2022 / Books & the Arts / David Kirp

Julius Eastman’s Great Expectations

Julius Eastman’s Great Expectations Julius Eastman’s Great Expectations

The neglected music of a revolutionary 20th-century composer continues to shock and awe.

Aug 12, 2022 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

The Photographs of the Border

The Photographs of the Border The Photographs of the Border

In More Than a Wall / Más que un Muro, labor journalist David Bacon offers a politically rich, bilingual compilation of photographs and oral histories.

Aug 11, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Aviva Chomsky

Steven Thrasher on “The Viral Underclass”

Steven Thrasher on “The Viral Underclass” Steven Thrasher on “The Viral Underclass”

The Nation spoke with Thrasher about who makes up the viral underclass—the subject of his new book—and what we should do to confront the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Aug 11, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Charlotte Rosen

The Toxic History of the Salton Sea

The Toxic History of the Salton Sea The Toxic History of the Salton Sea

A new book by Traci Brynne Voyles catalogs the alarming events that created one of the West’s most polluted bodies of water.

Aug 10, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Kyle Paoletta

Nation Poetry

less hope less hope

apologies. i was part of the joy industrial complex, told them their bodies were miracles & they ate it, sold someday, made money off soon & now. i snuck an ode into the el…

Aug 9, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Danez Smith

Nation Poetry

Closure Closure

Is it the eight titanium pins around my knees or the fact that for three months the incisions were left open? I grew to know that plush of inside— the velvets, the iodine to preven…

Aug 9, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Sheila Black

Keith Gessen’s Adventures in Parenting

Keith Gessen’s Adventures in Parenting Keith Gessen’s Adventures in Parenting

In his new book about parenting, Gessen offers a tour of anxieties set in the semi-gentrified Brooklyn of the 2020s.

Aug 9, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ryu Spaeth

Ottessa Moshfegh’s Cruel Worlds

Ottessa Moshfegh’s Cruel Worlds Ottessa Moshfegh’s Cruel Worlds

In her new novel, Moshfegh explores the brutish world of the Middle Ages.

Aug 8, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Elvia Wilk

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