Books and Ideas

Oil pumpjacks

When Real Life Feels More Like Science Fiction When Real Life Feels More Like Science Fiction

As almost happened in The War of the Worlds, we could kiss this planet goodbye—and if that’s not science fiction transformed into fact of the first order, what is?

Nov 26, 2021 / Tom Engelhardt

Dennis Cooper In A Loft In Soho, New York City.

Dennis Cooper’s Love Story of a Lifetime Dennis Cooper’s Love Story of a Lifetime

His new book, I Wished, asks: What can a novel do in the service of remembering a lost love?

Nov 26, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wolf

Diane di Prima and the Dream of the East Village Avant-Garde

Diane di Prima and the Dream of the East Village Avant-Garde Diane di Prima and the Dream of the East Village Avant-Garde

The poet’s recently released memoir of the 1960s, Spring and Autumn Annals, is an essential document in the history of New York’s downtown art scene.

Nov 24, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Lynne Feeley

The Radical World of Chicago’s Black Comic Artists

The Radical World of Chicago’s Black Comic Artists The Radical World of Chicago’s Black Comic Artists

An anthology of Black comic book makers from the the postwar era offers a glimpse into a genre of art that skewered the bigotry of white liberalism.  

Nov 23, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Zito Madu

Chile Street Protest

Donald Duck Quacks Again as Chile Elects a New President Donald Duck Quacks Again as Chile Elects a New President

A half-century after it fed the Pinochet regime’s bonfire of heretical books, a celebrated “handbook of decolonization” has new relevance to a country on the brink of a momentous c...

Nov 22, 2021 / Ariel Dorfman

Nation Poetry

On the Overnight from Agadir On the Overnight from Agadir

N…

Nov 22, 2021 / Poems / Charif Shanahan

The Green Bank telescope in West Virginia

Life in West Virginia’s “Quiet Zone” Life in West Virginia’s “Quiet Zone”

A recent book by journalist Stephen Kurczy examines what happens in a vast swath of the country where wireless signal is limited and carefully regulated.

Nov 22, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Evan Malmgren

Em Rata

Emily Ratajkowski: “I’m Very Displeased With Capitalism” Emily Ratajkowski: “I’m Very Displeased With Capitalism”

A conversation with the essayist and model about her debut collection My Body, critiquing capitalism, the commodification of one’s image, and much more.

Nov 17, 2021 / Q&A / Larissa Pham

Native American Heritage Month

Native American Heritage Month Native American Heritage Month

Honoring Native land and Native peoples, every day.

Nov 16, 2021 / OppArt / Andrea Arroyo

Anti-CRT protester

“Critical Race Theory” Is White History “Critical Race Theory” Is White History

Conservatives are rebranding an inclusive, honest accounting of American history as inherently anti-white.

Nov 16, 2021 / Column / Kali Holloway

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