Yellowface
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang breaks open the pitfalls of a publishing industry in today's cultural economy. It is an unsettling read by a masterful storyteller.
Poverty, By America
POVERTY is one subject Matthew Desmond knows intimately. That he has personally experienced what it is like to grow up poor in the richest country in the world, and received a Pulitzer Prize for writing about it, sets him apart from other…
On the Level
Mark Wagstaff’s new novel, On the Level, crashes the Jason Bourne films into Catcher in the Rye. Non-stop intrigue drives a coming-of-age story in which protagonist Riz Montgomery is both an unforgettably troubled, smart, and passionate…
Furnace Creek
Furnace Creek retells the classic bildungsroman Great Expectations, exchanging Victorian England for 1960s America, arguably one of the most turbulent decades in social history.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
For those who enjoy the unconventional bildungsroman—or are thirsting for some adventure—read this memoir by Laurie Lee. Originally published in 1969, it recounts the poet's long walk across Spain in the 1930s.
Category Unknown
Category Unknown by Koushik Banerjea is a dense and ambitious book that continues the conversation relaunched by the racial reckoning of 2020, "and reminds us that the conversation isn't the least bit new."
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
"Shattering one-sided, romanticized stories of how this country came to be…" Carol Ann Wilson reviews The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Two Novels that Strike Close to Home: On Finding Oneself in a Book
Geoffrey Dutton looks at the "book-within-a-book" literary device, as used in the 2015 novel Disclaimer— and his upcoming novel Her Own Devices.
The Philosophy of Marvin Goodspeed
The Regular, the new novel by Dave Buckhout, is a philosophical novel, and its main protagonist, Marvin Goodspeed, is a philosopher. That said, what is the philosophy of this modern day southern Cynic? And what, ultimately, is the book’s (and…
So You Want to Talk About Race: Understanding Racism in America
So You Want to Talk About Race is a vital book in our divisive society, to help all of us understand what is racial oppression and why we need to talk about it.
Books
On the Level
Mark Wagstaff’s new novel, On the Level, crashes the Jason Bourne films into Catcher in the Rye. Non-stop intrigue drives a coming-of-age story in which protagonist Riz Montgomery is both an…
Share
Furnace Creek
Furnace Creek retells the classic bildungsroman Great Expectations, exchanging Victorian England for 1960s America, arguably one of the most turbulent decades in social history.
Share
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
For those who enjoy the unconventional bildungsroman—or are thirsting for some adventure—read this memoir by Laurie Lee. Originally published in 1969, it recounts the poet's long walk across…
Share
Category Unknown
Category Unknown by Koushik Banerjea is a dense and ambitious book that continues the conversation relaunched by the racial reckoning of 2020, "and reminds us that the conversation isn't the…
Share
Interviews
Jasmine H. Wade: Being a storyteller “gave me a sense of peace and purpose.”
Jasmine H. Wade is an award-winning writer obsessed with the ridiculous, and oftentimes traumatic, trials of growing up. She is a member of the AfroSurreal Writers Workshop and her short stories have appeared in a number of journals.
Carol Ann Wilson: “I continue to write because I must.”
Carol Ann Wilson’s first book, Still Point of the Turning World: The Life of Gia-fu Feng, won Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award in biography, and was a finalist for the 2010 Indie New Generation Award and the Colorado Author’s League Top Hand Award. Because We Wanted To!: Two women, a dream and a ranch called Singing…
Rana Abdulfattah: “People are my inspiration, their pain and joy as well as their experiences.”
Rana Abdulfattah is a Syrian writer in exile. She grew up in a Damascus suburb in Syria and studied English literature in Damascus and the USA. Her debut poetry collection, Tiger and Clay – Syria Fragments, is part memoir and reminiscence, part meditation and critique.
Hugh Martin on writing, war, and the power of poetry
Hugh Martin is a veteran of the Iraq War and the author of The Stick Soldiers (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2013) and So, How Was the War? (Kent State UP, 2010). As he notes, "It was nearly impossible to discuss or explain 'what it was like' or anything similar, so I found, ultimately, the most precise and powerful form of expression was through…
The Writer’s Journey
Be Afraid, But Do It Anyway
Cory Essey has been writing since she was young, but kept it to herself. With persistence,—and many stories to tell—she now shares her writing with others.
Electrifying Oral Tradition
How has story been told? Geoffrey Dutton looks at the evolving technology of story, from oral tradition to artificial intelligence.
An Architect Aims for Creativity and Discovers Writing
To refine her skills as an architect, Nicole Voss went searching for the meaning of creativity. What she found was writing.
From Writer to Filmmaker, and Back Again
Stephen Newton shares his path from world of fiction to documentary film making. Stories told with the permission, and earned trust, of the films' subjects.
Making It Up
My mother was a great reader of romances. Not the classic kind. The sort that make money. In my far-back childhood in the last century, reading a book was still a usual way to pass time.
Never Gonna Give It Up
I guess I am a lesson in never giving up. I’m almost 70 (well, I just turned 69 so 70 is a year away – still seems like almost). I started writing seriously when I was about 35. Before that, I did lazy hippie things like a lot of short-term jobs and a lot of just living life. I went back to college – if you can call…
The Writer’s Journey
Be Afraid, But Do It Anyway
Cory Essey has been writing since she was young, but kept it to herself. With persistence,—and many stories to tell—she now shares her writing with others.
Electrifying Oral Tradition
How has story been told? Geoffrey Dutton looks at the evolving technology of story, from oral tradition to artificial intelligence.
An Architect Aims for Creativity and Discovers Writing
To refine her skills as an architect, Nicole Voss went searching for the meaning of creativity. What she found was writing.
From Writer to Filmmaker, and Back Again
Stephen Newton shares his path from world of fiction to documentary film making. Stories told with the permission, and earned trust, of the films' subjects.
Essays
Rikers Island: A Council Hearing Lacks Answers
The tragic story of Kalief Browder raised public awareness of the horrid reality for incarcerated persons at Rikers Island. Yet, needed change is too slow and a council hearing lacks answers.
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Essays
Rikers Island: A Council Hearing Lacks Answers
The tragic story of Kalief Browder raised public awareness of the horrid reality for incarcerated persons at Rikers Island. Yet, needed change is too slow and a council hearing lacks answers.
Share
The End of the Beginning
Building the Structural Foundation When I write, I have a plot sketched out in my mind and sometimes laying out the groundwork can be laborious and even boring. It’s essential, though, that I push my way through the initial drudgery and progress to the middle and the end of the story. When I finally type “The End,” I know I’m deluding myself. It’s only the end of the beginning. Usually at…
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Creativity is the Human Condition
Throughout the majority of humanity’s existence, creativity has been regarded as a mystical enigma. Architect and architecture critic Robert Furneaux Jordan asserted that “to comprehend [creativity] fully would be to be God. We can never comprehend God.” Thanks to this prevailing opinion, it wasn’t until the late 1940s that the study of creativity even started down the path toward…
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Parts of Me: Reflections on Reviewing The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
In this Writer's Journey essay, Carol Ann Wilson shares how, in reading and reviewing The 1619 Project, she also uncovers "parts of a bigger me to be discovered and explored."
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Longform reviews
The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine
Ben Ehrenreich, on assignment for Harper’s magazine, went to Palestine’s West Bank in 2011 to report on Israel’s water war with Palestine. The Way to the Spring is based on his eye-witness account of life in the West Bank—in the village of Nabi Saleh and the cities of Hebron and Ramallah.
The New Jim Crow
Why has an academic book with a title that includes this mix—“Jim Crow,” “mass incarceration,” and “colorblindness”— resonated with the public? Clearly, Alexander has hit a nerve. Something profound is happening in American society.
Hip Set
Michael Fertik’s novel Hip Set is not only a thrilling detective story but also a literary inquiry into the sacred and the profane—the secular sandwiched between both. When it comes to human behavior, there is nothing pure about it, just as there is nothing pure about what lies on an arc between good and bad or between heaven and hell.
God Help the Child
The reality and impact of child abuse rests uneasily, front and center, with the interwoven themes of love and transformation. Meticulously crafted, God Help the Child is a journey of souls and hearts, a must-read book.
No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems
Liu Xiaobo is the author of hundreds of essays and seventeen books. Most of the essays in No Enemies, No Hatred are from the period between 2004 and 2008, and reflect, in the service of freedom of speech, how words followed by action can change the direction of a country.
From the Archive
A Singular Woman
For many, Ann Dunham is known as the mother of the 44th U.S. president who happened to be white, and that’s just about all they know about her. In A Singular Woman, Janny Scott retrieves…
War Trash
War Trash isn’t my favorite novel. Ha Jin isn’t my favorite writer. But the novel is important for me because it shows me a part of history I didn’t know.
To The Lighthouse
Ever wondered how a novel would read were it written, without restraint, with the freedom and ferocity of a poem? Read Virginia Woolf's masterpiece.
You don’t want to miss these books
Barbarian Days, Artist of Life, History of Wolves, and The Dry. This week's good reads you don't want to miss.