Nonfiction

Writing

Unpublished journal entries

My Screenshots

In search of lost memes

The Birthday Party No One Wants

Why Americans aren't celebrating the semiquincentennial

The End of Books

What happened when a dumpster arrived behind my university's library

Reading the Declaration of Independence as Holy Text

How the American creed emerged—and evolved—over 250 years

Toni Morrison’s Native Figures

A new reading of race in her novels

Browse

Nonfiction

Books

Life in the Algorithm

It has reshaped culture—but how? Two new books reckon with our digital predicament
December 11, 2023

Revisiting Dag Hammarskjöld’s Mysterious Death

One man is known to have survived the infamous crash. Why was his testimony hidden?
December 11, 2023

The Night Watch

I first sought sanctuary during the Troubles. I'm still looking for it.
December 11, 2023

Why I Write

The legendary cultural critic on finding a life’s work
December 11, 2023

Revisiting Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance

The novel that introduced a new post-Stonewall gay sensibility
December 4, 2023

Streaming the Polycrisis

Why have TV miniseries about catastrophe become all the rage?
November 28, 2023

William Blake’s "Laocoön"

Why the poet's engraving reads like a protest poster
November 15, 2023

The Legacy of Sonic Youth

How the band reached beyond music to define a scene
November 8, 2023

Ucky Art

Judith Scott, Eva Hesse, and the visceral power of "texxture"
November 6, 2023

Again On the Slaughter

A response to the Israel-Hamas war
November 2, 2023