Nonfiction

Memoir

Writing

Unpublished journal entries
Annie Ernaux
Objects of Desire

My Screenshots

In search of lost memes
Sarah Thankam Mathews
The Moment

The Birthday Party No One Wants

Why Americans aren't celebrating the semiquincentennial
Samuel Moyn
Essays

The End of Books

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

Reading the Declaration of Independence as Holy Text

How the American creed emerged—and evolved—over 250 years
Kathryn Lofton
Essays

Toni Morrison’s Native Figures

A new reading of race in her novels
Namwali Serpell

Browse

Nonfiction

Essays

Quiver and Fixity

What I found returning to Thomas Hardy in midlife
Jhumpa Lahiri
March 16, 2026
Books

Solvej Balle’s Philosophy of Time

How a novelist transformed a single day into a radical literary experiment
Clare Carlisle
March 16, 2026
Essays

The Body I Couldn't Abstract

Motherhood reshaped how I see shame, art, and the female body
Megan O’Grady
March 16, 2026
Books

The Elusive Poet of Desire

Why biographers can’t pin Cavafy down
Langdon Hammer
March 16, 2026
Ideas

Who Was Shakespeare?

What Hamnet does—and doesn’t—get right
Dana Stevens
March 10, 2026
On Writing

My First Book Outed Me

How writing poems changed the course of my life
Carl Phillips
January 26, 2026
Portrait of Audley “Queen Mother” Moore
Essay of the Week

The Forgotten Visionary of Reparations

Queen Mother Moore called for liberation, not just compensation
Robin D. G. Kelley
January 19, 2026
Essay of the Week

No Harm

An excerpt from the winner of the Yale Nonfiction Book Prize
Jonathan Gleason
January 13, 2026
From the Editors

Our Favorite Cultural Artifacts of 2025

December 16, 2025
Dick Rudisill’s “Ruined Couch,” a gelatin silver print of a cushionless, dirt-covered sofa
Objects of Desire

Loveseat

I threw it away. Then I wanted it back.
Helen Phillips
December 15, 2025