Literature

The Last Day of the End of the World Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . A Run-Up to the Next Release On the sixth day of the transition, of The Invasion, or Second Coming, or

From left to right, prose winner Jamie Lauer and writer Pía Barros, poetry winner Russell Karrick, poet Lucía Estrada. Jamie Lauer and Russell Karrick recently were named as the recipients of the third annual translation prize for students sponsored by World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma. Consistent with World Literature Today’s commitment to

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . Growing up in Baltimore, my world of Westerns was replete with white cowboys. When the idea for my novel Book of the Little Axe came to me, white men

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . Lydia Millet has always fought for the environment. She has written many books that take the natural world as their subject, but her signature approach is refreshingly askew, shot

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . During these strange, pandemic times, desire has entered our lives on the heels of restriction. We are learning first-hand the spiraling madness that comes from obsessing over what we

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . A doctor who recognizes the first symptoms of an illness that threatens the population. Authorities who dismiss his warnings as fearmongering, until an epidemic is inevitable. A city that goes

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . The old internet has its familiar charms, from the screeching dial-up sound to the winsome screen names of its users. But what I find most fascinating about the internet,

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . When Jenny Zhang’s debut short story collection, Sour Heart, was published in 2017, I had been reading her poetry, short-fiction and essays for a few years and I felt

Top row (left to right): Laurie Halse Anderson, Eric Gansworth, Meg Medina. Middle row: Linda Sue Park, Mitali Perkins, Jason Reynolds. Bottom row: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Laurel Snyder, Alex Wheatle Finalists for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, sponsored by World Literature Today, were announced today at the University of Oklahoma. The NSK

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . The absence of someone or something is as palpable as their presence. I’ve discovered this—quite painfully—in my own life as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. Naturally, I’m drawn to

Carlos Estévez, Self-Fishing, 2006, collage on paper, 39½ x 27½ inches / Courtesy of the artist Now the beat(there is always a beat).Now the drumsand the darkness within.Now the dance.The standoff. Now the story about the jailerwho frees the future dictator out of pity.Now his lover (the invisible ink).Now the reports from the front.Now the

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . Amado Vazquez, a Mexican botanist, named an orchid after Joan Didion. While that was a chic gesture, I don’t think of her as an orchid. I think of her

Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . It’s fitting—maybe even a little on-the-nose—that the last book I finished on my commute to work was Hilary Leichter’s Temporary. Now that my twice-daily train ride has been indefinitely

Cancer Is the Secret of This Company Town Leah Hampton Share article Electric Lit is committed to publishing—and paying writers—through the pandemic without any layoffs or pay cuts. Please consider supporting us during this difficult time. Donate here. . “Twitchell”by Leah Hampton For the first half of Margie Pifer’s pottery lecture at the Arts Council picnic,

Reading at the Edge of the Forest, by Marti Spencer / Courtesy of the artist The following talk was first presented at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association in Seattle, Washington, January 2020. Teaching the literature of American Indians is admittedly paradoxical. On one hand, it has to do with the fact that