Books & the Arts

Nation Poetry

Drowning Creek Drowning Creek

Past the strip malls and the power plants, out of the holler, past Gun Bottom Road and Brassfield and before Red Lick Creek, there’s a stream called Drowning Creek where I saw the…

Aug 24, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Ada Limón

Emma Rothschild’s Family Sagas and Microhistories

Emma Rothschild’s Family Sagas and Microhistories Emma Rothschild’s Family Sagas and Microhistories

Can one tell the story of a country through one family?

Aug 23, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

Coup Chile

The Distortions of Pinochet The Distortions of Pinochet

Nona Fernández’s novels reckon with the Chilean dictatorship through surreality and memory.

Aug 19, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lucas Iberico Lozada

California venice beach

Sandi Tan’s Magical Americana Sandi Tan’s Magical Americana

Her new novel, Lurkers, captures the defiant and surreal exuberance that has defined her work across fiction and film.

Aug 18, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rebecca Liu

Smog In Los Angeles

Mythos and Cliché: The Fractured History of Los Angeles Mythos and Cliché: The Fractured History of Los Angeles

Learning from and reckoning with the stories writers tell about a world-historical city. 

Aug 17, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wolf

Art and Exile in the Third Republic

Art and Exile in the Third Republic Art and Exile in the Third Republic

James McAuley’s The House of Fragile Things examines the travails of a circle of Jewish art collectors, tracing a history of betrayal and dispossession.

Aug 16, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Stamler

Democracy’s Money Problem

Democracy’s Money Problem Democracy’s Money Problem

Comparing democracies across the world, a new book reveals that when it comes to financing elections they are not that democratic at all. 

Aug 11, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jan-Werner Müller

The Liberation of Alice Neel

The Liberation of Alice Neel The Liberation of Alice Neel

Her paintings were a site of expression for populist politics and in her art she found something close to freedom from the doldrums of her personal life.

Aug 10, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jillian Steinhauer

The Fuller Court.

Whose Side Is the Supreme Court On? Whose Side Is the Supreme Court On?

Many people who came of age in the 1950s and 60s view the Supreme Court as a force for good when it comes to race. But the court has often been the most anti-progressive branch of ...

Aug 9, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Randall Kennedy

ZOLA

“Zola” and the Limits of the Internet Movie “Zola” and the Limits of the Internet Movie

An adaptation of a viral Twitter thread only scratches the surface of how film storytelling might intersect with life online.

Aug 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

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