Literature

My Lust Will Melt All the Snow in Antarctica Steam He—for of his gorgeous sex there could be no doubt—was sitting opposite me in the steam room. White towel tied around his waist, legs spread apart. He was speaking, of all things, of Antarctica. Of Robert Scott and his doomed expedition, and of the fate

Two years ago, I stood in Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes’s home office in the South Bay, surrounded by a whirlwind of color-coded index cards, open notebooks, and stacks of books, all orbiting a large whiteboard crowded with both historical facts and imagined possibilities. She told me—almost casually—that this was the research for the novel she was

There’s something undeniably compelling about stories of getting lost. They capture not only literal misplacement but also the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual ways we can feel unmoored. Being adrift is rarely just a setback; it can be a catalyst for insight, resilience, and self-discovery. Moments of disorientation, upheaval, and confusion often push us to look

The first half of 2026 is shaping up to be a particularly strong season for translated fiction. We move through queer Tokyo nightlife, militarized Estonian farmland, Parisian attics full of exiles, music festivals at the foot of Andean volcanoes, and even other galaxies. What links these books isn’t geography or genre so much as their

The Childhood Friend I Abandoned Is Trying to Save Me Lim Sunwoo Share article “That Unfamiliar Night” by Lim Sunwoo When I saw Geumok again, it was in front of Exit 4 at Sinchon Station. I didn’t recognize her right away. I merely thought, She looks familiar . . . and nothing more. The first

Early memoirs of people living with HIV and AIDS played a crucial role in humanizing the disease. Those books, alongside public service campaigns and media representations, put a face to HIV and helped generate not just compassion for those affected but also a deeper understanding of the complexity of the illness. Many of the first

I first discovered George Saunders’s writing as a college student, home for summer break. Tenth of December had just come out, and I picked it up at the sole independent bookstore in my hometown on the recommendation of a writing professor. At this moment in my life, I was feeling a bit disillusioned with literature.

Watching the steadily increasing discrimination against people from Latin America and the Caribbean [LAC] in the United States of America has been horrific; equally troubling is seeing the way in which certain people in the United States remain uninformed about their own country’s role in creating the conditions which force people to immigrate in the

“Late, Blooming” by Roxane Gay, excerpted from The Big M, edited by Lidia Yuknavitch Recently, my father sent me a picture of my cousin Ariane’s christening. In it, I was fourteen or so, her godmother. Another cousin was her godfather. We were all very young. We stood with the priest around the baptismal font, in

Rock climbing, the niche sport where people scramble up jagged cliff faces and large stones using only the tips of their fingers and toes, is, improbably, having a moment. Dedicated gyms are mushrooming up in stripmalls, warehouses, converted churches, and oversized basements. Pretty much every major city now has a veritable buffet of options for

Trauma Bonding at the Five-Year Reunion Five-Year Reunion Click to enlarge and scroll Lapse Click to enlarge Take a break from the news We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven’t read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. YOUR INBOX IS LIT Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter

Beronda L. Montgomery, a botanist and a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard, has made a career of interacting with plants, though her first attempt at communicating with them was kind of a flop. As a child, she had a full-fledged love affair with the wilds of Arkansas, but by the time she was a teenager, Montgomery

When Chicano skateboarder BeeGee skated into the frame of One Battle After Another, on his way to join pro-migrant protests amid police violence, I turned to the friend beside me and whispered, “I want a whole other movie about these skateboarders.” Imagine my delight when BeeGee and his gang reappeared, leading Leonardo DiCaprio through a

While many of us watch with dread as American society is rocked by menacing politics, New York-based author Svetlana Satchkova has already lived through the experience of her country becoming more authoritarian. Her debut English-language novel, The Undead, grapples with the fear she experienced as a cultural journalist and novelist in Putin’s Moscow, before moving

A Friendship Spanning Bombay Prep Schools and Connecticut Strip Malls Reena Shah Share article An excerpt from Every Happiness by Reena Shah Though Ruchi needed the job, any job, her first impulse when Deepa finally called was to say no. Deepa talked as if no time had passed, like she hadn’t avoided Ruchi’s calls since the

Fame used to be something sacred. Back before the internet shattered monoculture into millions of digital pieces, “celebrity” was a title held only by the saintly and untouchable few. The 50s had Marilyn Monroe. The 80s, Michael Jackson. The early aughts, Britney Spears. Try and think of a celebrity that’s defined the 2010s or 2020s,

Confession: I binged Apple TV+’s Your Friends and Neighbors even though I’m about to disparage its spineless attempt to indict the corruption of the ultra-rich. I’ve watched Succession, Sirens, all the White Lotuses, Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers, The Perfect Couple, Saltburn and The Menu. All of these shows attracted me with their real