Literature

Like so many others, I began writing when I read authors whose names sounded like my own. These novels by Lahiri, Rushdie, and Roy won all kinds of awards and provided the retort I needed to the typical South Asian first-gen parental gauntlet of doctor, engineer, or lawyer. How about Booker Prize winner?  I studied

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Biolamp by Dennis James Sweeney, which will be published on April 20, 2027 by Autumn House Press. You can pre-order your copy here. In Biolamp, Dennis James Sweeney confronts ecological collapse, technological alienation, and the lingering weight of history with startling imagination and unexpected hope. In their sophomore collection,

Aphantasia: A Floor Plan by Josepha Natzke Front Stairwell The home’s previous owners painted the stairwell a dark mauve. You and I are close to the top step. The white beam of our bed frame looms between us, its length caught on the last corner. Since we have been married we have moved four times,

Nothing Says Quality Time Like Being Kidnapped by Dad My Father, My Aerialist “And he forged on the shield . . . wedding feasts . . . and the young men came dancing . . .” – The Iliad What money he made, he hid inside his jacket pocket And came back home to smoke the

In 2013, Abdelrahman ElGendy is a 17-year-old fledgling activist as students like him take to Cairo’s streets in protest against a military coup. Only two years earlier, they’d been swept up in the hope of Egypt’s January 25th revolution. During one mass demonstration, in which Abdelrahman is present as a bystander recording the fervor from

I Cannot Make My Son Purer Than This Sickening World Ingeborg Bachmann Share article “Everything” by Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Philip Boehm and Tess Lewis When we sit down to eat like two people turned to stone or when we meet at the door to the apartment in the evening because we both thought to

At the age of 18, I ran away from the rural South and cut contact with my entire family. I fled halfway across the country and began college as a first generation, low income college student. I legally changed my name, found solace in writing, and grafted roots through my chosen family. I will never

Something I have been thinking about a lot—and talking to other industry peers with—is what has happened to media, and specifically books coverage. This is why even if you have just five dollars, you should consider donating to Electric Literature, who is one of the few remaining outlets specifically devoted to literature.  Many of the

“Obedience to Authority: On Being Broken,” an excerpt from Feels Like Trouble by Helen Betya Rubinstein It was my first class of college, the class I walked across the quad toward on the crisp morning after Labor Day, the empty days of orientation finally over, bell tower clanging out some approximation of a song. Writing

Field Guide to Predators in Their Natural Habitat The Photographs Never Develop Like You Imagine I’m a photographer, he said, I want you to pose for me.A camera dangled from his neck instead of a whistle—otherwise he was my dad’s stand-in, blue Oxfordtucked into khakis. He found me in the concessionline, five bucks sweating in

If you haven’t already read at least one of Lydia Millet’s books, the prospect might be daunting. By my count, there are 22 to choose from. Where to start? Do you go back to the madcap beginnings of her career and read the satirical George Bush, Dark Prince of Love? Or do you look to

When I opened the Zoom, I was juggling feeding my toddler her yogurt pancakes and apologizing to Siang Lu for the chaos. We can reschedule, he said. I refused—just a few more bites and we’d be settled. He laughed and reminisced about the time his own children were that age, when he was trying to

A Luxury Apartment in Manhattan Is No Safer Than a Kitchen in East Oakland Jason Kwon Share article “Kitchen Barbarians” by Jason Kwon The Lehman desk had been dead for six years, but still haunted the 47th floor of One Bryant Park. Jack Kwon could feel it some nights: the residual hum of 10,000 trades

Like many of you, I wake up each morning with the feeling that they’re coming for us. But then I think, they have always come for the queers. And we have always, throughout human history, stood watch all night over the fire. We have always taken care of each other, and we will keep on

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Technicolor Horses by Michael Credico, which will be published on April 6, 2027 by Autumn House Press. You can pre-order your copy here. Set in a near-future version of the American Midwest, Michael Credico’s novella, Technicolor Horses, explores the disaster of an Ohio community caught in chaos and how trust

“Where Is Here?” an excerpt from I’m Still Here by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, translated by Alison Entrekin & Daniel Hahn We don’t remember the first images and accomplishments of our lives: milk from the breast, the bars of our crib, the mobile that turns magically of its own accord, rolling over, not being able to

Nothing Says Apocalypse Like a Hampton Inn Parking Lot Soft Landing Summer At the Hampton Inn half a mile downHighway 301 from the Winn Dixiewhere I pick up a bottle of cheapChardonnay, next to the Wendy’swhere the cashier gives me extra chiliwith my order, the rental car thermometersays it’s over ninety in the shade at

Every September, even though I’ve been out of school for more than a decade, I have stress dreams about not finishing the assigned summer reading. Campus time is hard to shake. Maybe that’s part of the enduring appeal of the campus novel: Few periods of life come with such a ready-made sense of narrative. Semesters