Literature

In the following essay, the author reflects on the jarring disconnect between a reader’s intimacy with an author on the page and an encounter in real time. Are we, as readers, owed anything by the author, and if so, what? Is reading ever reciprocal? As a veteran bookseller, I’d watched lines form before authors, fans

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. . We believe that beauty for women is a source of power and privilege. A kind of currency. But is it truly attainable? What is the flip side of beauty—when

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. . Outrageous, intelligent, and darkly hilarious, You Will Never Be Forgotten includes characters who are harvested for their body parts, cloned, and surveilled, existing in worlds not-too-distant, or perhaps already

Published by Cornell University Press in 2019 and awarded the 2019 American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize (20th and21st Centuries), Stephanie Malia Hom’s Empire’s Mobius Strip: Historical Echoes in Italy’s Crisis of Migration and Detention examines the relationship between migration, mobility, and modern Italy. Having previously authored The Beautiful Country: Tourism and the Impossible

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. . Victoria Chang’s Obit grapples with grief while recognizing how grief grapples us, how grief exceeds our grasp. It is a state that won’t stay still. As the end of

She’s Got the Whole World in Her Uterus 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 Reveal Party Goldust is a complicated woman. On a Saturday morning, as we slipped coffee down our throats and listened

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. . Right now, Broadway houses, high school auditoriums, community theaters, and regional concert halls are hollow and quiet. Who knows when these performances will be able to come back? 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. . I’m not sure why I’ve always been obsessed with novels about depressed famous people.  Maybe it has something to do with growing up in Washington, DC, a city devoid

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. . New York Times best-selling author Samantha Irby may have become a household name (in certain households, anyway) following the massive success of her 2017 essay collection, We Are Never

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. . In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This month we’re talking

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. . “Write soon. We long for your lines, especially because the post from Sweden arrives as it should. Take care of yourself. May God protect you, a thousand kisses from

Glass I am floating inside a blinding white box, suspended in the sky. As I lean against the wide window overlooking the city, my forehead touches the ice-cold surface, and I pull back. It feels like breathing glass in here. The heaviest of fogs has descended from the skies, and the skyscrapers look like fragile

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. . Genevieve Hudson has already made a name for themself with their short fiction, which appears in McSweeney’s, Catapult, Joyland, and No Tokens, to name a few, as well as

The Friend That Went to War and the Friend That Went to Law School John Cotter John Cotter’s novel is Under the Small Lights and his home is Denver. Twitter: @smalllights. 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

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. . After weeks of living under a lockdown meant to curb the spread of COVID-19, many of us are complaining we’re losing our grip on reality. What we really mean

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. . Stephanie Danler’s memoir Stray invites us to look closely at our own life: our family dynamics, our loss, our trauma, and the moments of happiness that still exist within

Emma Ramadan is a literary translator based in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is the co-owner of Riffraff, a bookstore and bar. She is the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim grant, and a Fulbright scholarship (see WLT, Nov. 2015, 32). She has translated over a dozen books, including Sphinx, by Anne Garréta,