Literature

Inspired by nightmares and the work of surrealist filmmaker David Lynch, Lena Valencia’s debut short story collection Mystery Lights seeks to explore women’s darker natures. We meet a feminist filmmaker, who obtains strength at a pivotal moment from her fictional murderesses. In an attack on the domestic goddess trope, a young girl, recently returned from

Have you ever dated a comedian? At first you’re laughing and having a good time. Without realizing it, you allow yourself to let down your guard—funny people, after all, are often perceived as light and frivolous. But then the quips get a little darker, their witty observations maybe too astute, too sharp, cutting. Before you know it,

Novels with multiple points of view aren’t telling one story, but many. They appreciate an important life principle: anybody can be a hero given the right opportunity. Even when focused on  the same event, each recollection is different, tinted by each person’s experience and knowledge. These perspectives might corroborate or contradict, add another dimension, form

“A to Z” was written to be enjoyed as an audio story, and we encourage you to listen, if possible. For accessibility, the full transcript is also available below. You can read it by clicking the arrow. Alanna: So, as I was listening to your message, I dropped a charm with no chain into—you know

In Off the Books, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier draws readers into a classic road trip novel and then surprises us with a geopolitical twist. Protagonist Měi, an Ivy League dropout, drives a taxi off the books and is transporting her new client Henry across the country. Henry is handsome, witty, and oddly solicitous about an

Time travel is hard to wrap your head around, especially when distracted by a total hottie from nearly 200 years ago. Movies like Groundhog Day, or even Palm Springs, try to smooth over the ethical questions of sleeping with a time traveler with movie magic; books like Time Traveler’s Wife do their best to ignore

When most folks hear the word “archive,” they picture a dusty library folder…but when scholars use the word, sometimes they mean it in a different sense. For them, “the Black Archive” certainly refers to the papers and documents that track lives and deeds. But scholars, or at least new generations of scholars and writers, also

Brazil has never lacked great literature. But for a long time, it seemed that only the classic Brazilian writers were being published and read in English. You may have heard their names: Machado de Assis, Jorge Amado, Clarice Lispector, Mário de Andrade, Hilda Hist. These are all phenomenal writers, but the vast majority of Brazilian

Passing by Lane Michael Stanley Los Angeles, California. Him: Jess, elder millennial from Los Angeles.Me: millennial, born in San Diego, raised in Maryland, three years on Testosterone.  Jess takes me on our first date on Valentine’s Day, to a vegan Thai restaurant. We’ve been in love for a year and we can finally be together.

Which Hedge Fund Owns the Sea? We Are in the Future Now! I dreamt I was baking an apple pie and in the dream I woke up and you said: Your dreams are so good I can smell them.They shot some _____ last night. No one knows howmany _____ died. We are saddened by this

This summer, find comfort in the power of chosen family and friendship, laugh at the absurdities of the patriarchy, and weep at a story of heartbreak and redemption. Themes often present in literature—and in life—like the search for belonging and reconciliation, the fight against oppression, healing from trauma, and grieving the past and lost loves

Dinaw Mengestu’s novel Someone Like Us is about grief, about attempting to comprehend loss because of exile, because of physical and emotional distances that often fracture our ability to truly understand our loved ones. The novel’s narrator, lovingly called Mamush by his family, returns home to Washington D.C. and finds that a beloved father-figure, Samuel,

Italy is a place that has ignited literary inspiration in foreigners for thousands of years. Since the time of Homer, who set big portions of The Odyssey in what is today Calabria and Sicily, the narrative of the expatriate wandering through the landscape-, art-, and food-rich Italian countryside has developed into a classic form. These

Once upon a time in a land far, far away. Once upon a time there was a castle. A prince. A girl.  Once upon a time, a story starts. A fairytale starts. But all fairytales don’t start that way. All fairytales don’t have happy endings either. Not even the originals, especially not the originals.  And

The Mudmen Want My Sister More Than I Do Lena Valencia Lena Valencia is a Los Angeles-born writer who lives in Brooklyn. Share article Trogloxene by Lena Valencia Max was home. It had been ten days of sleepless nights punctuated by nightmares, ten days of television news crews in the front yard, ten days of

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If Sarah Manguso’s new novel, Liars, can be categorized in any genre, it is probably best characterized as a horror story. It tells the intimate, blistering story of a marriage that seemingly begins as a fulfilling partnership between John and Jane, who ostensibly share artistic aspirations and mutual ambitions, but quickly devolves into a relationship