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Unpublished journal entries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

Seamus Heaney surrounded by books at London’s Royal Society of Literature in March 1995
Books

Searching for Seamus Heaney

What I found when I resolved to read him
Elisa Gonzalez
December 15, 2025
Film

Terrence Malick’s Disciples

Why the auteur is the most influential director in Hollywood
Bilge Ebiri
December 15, 2025
Dan Fox as a child with his nain, or grandmother, in the chicken-filled yard of Siambr Wen, near Llanrwst, North Wales, UK
Essays

What Happened When I Began to Speak Welsh

By learning my family's language, I hoped to join their conversation.
Dan Fox
December 15, 2025
Essays

When Does a Divorce Begin?

Most people think of it as failure. For me it was an achievement.
Anahid Nersessian
December 15, 2025
Sepia toned photograph showing painter Joan Mitchell behind a canvas in her studio
Essays

The Unfolding of Time in Paint

My encounters with Joan Mitchell's panels
Rachel Cohen
December 11, 2025
Interviews

Robert Glück

The writer remembers an era of sexual freedom and mourns literary lives cut short
Samuel Ernest
December 1, 2025
Essay of the Week

Who Was the Foodie?

What it would mean to take taste seriously again
Alicia Kennedy
November 17, 2025
Black-and-white photo of Susan Brownmiller with a copy of her book Against Our Will
Essay of the Week

The Book That Changed How We Think About Rape

Fifty years on, what lessons endure from Against Our Will?
Claire Bond Potter
November 10, 2025
A still of Ayo Edebiri and Julia Roberts in Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt
Essay of the Week

What “After the Hunt” Gets Right

I left academia. Luca Guadagnino’s new film reminds me why.
Annie Julia Wyman
November 3, 2025
Essays

An Incomplete Mentorship

Ellen Bryant Voigt helped me become the writer I am today. After a falling out, we never spoke again.
Rachel Jamison Webster
October 30, 2025