For Yiyun Li, All Writing Is Autobiographical For Yiyun Li, All Writing Is Autobiographical
We had a wide ranging conversation with Li about her feelings on autofiction, bad readers, and why her work has yet to be translated into Chinese.
Oct 21, 2019 / Q&A / Rosemarie Ho
Ben Lerner’s Quandary Ben Lerner’s Quandary
The Topeka School captures the novelist at a crossroads between politics and aesthetics, fiction and poetry.
Oct 14, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Evan Kindley
Lynda Barry’s Infectious Genius Lynda Barry’s Infectious Genius
The award-winning cartoonist is not only a great artist but a wellspring of inspiration for others.
Sep 30, 2019 / Jeet Heer
Kamel Daoud and the Paradoxes of Liberation Kamel Daoud and the Paradoxes of Liberation
In a new collection of his political writings, the Algerian novelist contemplates the unfinished business of his country’s struggle for independence.
Sep 30, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Robyn Creswell
The Maddening Genius of Lynne Tillman The Maddening Genius of Lynne Tillman
Her fiction and non-fiction explores, in exacting detail, the lives of obsessives, offering a window into the inner workings of particularly intense minds.
Sep 30, 2019 / Haley Mlotek
Margaret Atwood Shouldn’t Exonerate Aunt Lydia Margaret Atwood Shouldn’t Exonerate Aunt Lydia
The Testaments, Atwood’s sequel to Handmaid’s Tale, gives undue credit to Gilead’s misogynistic female enabler.
Sep 19, 2019 / Column / Katha Pollitt
Does This Nearly 1,000-Page-Long Sentence Encapsulate the Anxiety of American Life? Does This Nearly 1,000-Page-Long Sentence Encapsulate the Anxiety of American Life?
Lucy Ellmann’s novel Ducks, Newburyport provides a comprehensive diagnosis of one citizen’s very modern alienation.
Sep 19, 2019 / Dustin Illingworth
Sally Rooney and the Millennial Novel of Manners Sally Rooney and the Millennial Novel of Manners
Her second book, Normal People, mines the travails of Irish youth to tell a decidedly contemporary love story.
Sep 17, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Gold
What Inspired ‘Lolita’? What Inspired ‘Lolita’?
Sarah Weinman’s new book traces the true crime that influenced Nabokov and the writing of his novel.
Sep 10, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Wilson
Transfixing and Repellent: Susan Steinberg’s Fictions of Insidious Masculinity Transfixing and Repellent: Susan Steinberg’s Fictions of Insidious Masculinity
Her debut novel, Machine, looks at how the language, codes, and culture of men subordinate one teenage girl on vacation.
Sep 5, 2019 / Kyle Paoletta