Culture

Ian McEwan’s 20th Century

Ian McEwan’s 20th Century Ian McEwan’s 20th Century

In his new novel, McEwan ruefully looks back at a Britain that no longer exists.

Nov 14, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Sarah Chihaya

Marine walks through WWI cemetery

Top 10 Veterans Day Songs Top 10 Veterans Day Songs

Songs about war and attendant suffering cut across musical genres.

Nov 11, 2022 / Peter Rothberg

Are Americans Bad at Reading?

Are Americans Bad at Reading? Are Americans Bad at Reading?

Novelist Elaine Castillo’s essays reflect on reading as an ethical act and the moral politics of literature in the US.

Nov 10, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer

Nation Poetry

Kehua / I used to want to be the bait that caught Te Ika Kehua / I used to want to be the bait that caught Te Ika

  I lost my nerve for spirits when I was sixteen. Spent that whole spring playing chicken and betraying my grandparents’ liquor cabinets for homies who were too cool to say th…

Nov 10, 2022 / Poems / Tayi Tibble

Police line outside the Pelosi home in San Francisc

After the Attack on Paul Pelosi, the GOP Again Is the Party of No Shame After the Attack on Paul Pelosi, the GOP Again Is the Party of No Shame

As recently as 2006, Republicans could take an internal political scandal seriously. Not anymore.

Nov 10, 2022 / Chris Lehmann

Growing Toward the Light

Growing Toward the Light Growing Toward the Light

Foundational women, literary giants.

Nov 9, 2022 / OppArt / Anonymous and Walker Maffit

Caravaggio’s The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Teju Cole’s Elegiac Criticism Teju Cole’s Elegiac Criticism

For the novelist and photographer, to see—and to write about what one sees—is a way to confront the hard facts of the world.

Nov 9, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Walton Muyumba

RICK LOWE's Victoria Square Project- Open Borders, 2022

The Outer Limits of Painting The Outer Limits of Painting

Recent shows from Rick Lowe and Mary Heilmann subvert expectations of the medium, their work exploring social life and its imperfections past the confines of the canvas.

Nov 8, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

What, Her Worry? Iowa’s Kim Reynolds Is Running a Dishonest and Nasty Campaign

What, Her Worry? Iowa’s Kim Reynolds Is Running a Dishonest and Nasty Campaign What, Her Worry? Iowa’s Kim Reynolds Is Running a Dishonest and Nasty Campaign

But the Republican governor’s punch-down politics are no bar to reelection.

Nov 7, 2022 / Dave Leshtz

The Problem With “Jihad, Rehab” Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion

The Problem With “Jihad, Rehab” Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion The Problem With “Jihad, Rehab” Isn’t Filmmaker Meg Smaker’s Color or Religion

The idea that a white woman cannot make a film about non-white men is absurd. But as “Meg,” the film’s narrator, her voice is the voice of the cop.

Nov 7, 2022 / Moustafa Bayoumi

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