Literature

In the 1999 incarceration fantasy drama The Green Mile, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is a despondent prison warden suffering from a chronic bladder infection that frequently incapacitates him and impedes his ability to effectively police criminals in the Depression-era South. In one pivotal scene, baritone-voiced inmate John Coffey (Michael Clarke-Duncan) dwarfs the prison bars that

Electric Literature hosts two weekly literary magazines, Recommended Reading and The Commuter, and seeks one assistant editor who will serve both of these publications. Recommended Reading publishes longform fiction—a mix of original work and excerpts—with personal introductions by top writers. The Commuter publishes brief, diverting flash fiction, poetry, and graphic narratives. With over 540 issues

In this letter to a friend, a health-care worker, Mahtem Shiferraw traces the devastating effects of war and how, with Covid-19—this war “that bloomed itself out of nothing, that continued to shapeshift and elude us in more ways than one”—we can choose different outcomes. Dear J., Grief has finally settled in. It has found corners

I Am the Faceless Woman on the Cover of Your Novel POC Book Cover Model I feel the most brown facing a solid, bright background that seduces preteens at the Scholastic fair. My long black-as-licorice braids with their sweet virginal shine beg for pity, are maybe a metaphor for tradition, repression, machismo, all the miserable

JD Scott’s debut short story collection, Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day, calls on myth and magic, Florida and fabulism to tell stories of queer youth seeking out love and transformation within a world in crisis (and in the case of the collection’s novella, “After the End Came the Mall, and the Mall

Encountering racism from other gay men when I came out caused me to interrogate my own identity, questioning what I’m able to become if a lot of the world told me “no.” The more I thought on this, over time it eventually sank in that the answer was (and always has been): anything I wanted

Susan Scarf Merrell is the author of Shirley: A Novel, which has just been adapted into the new film Shirley, written by Sarah Gubbins and directed by Josephine Decker. The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Shirley Jackson and Michael Stuhlbarg as her husband, Stanley Hyman, each delivering unforgettable performances. Aided by the rich research and

Like many people who identify strongly as readers, I’ve been having trouble with focus lately. While I yearn for the brain engagement that a good reading session can bring, I find my eyes skimming over words, my mind skipping like a broken VHS tape over images and emotions that keep me perpetually distracted. Some days

After several grueling hours of protesting against systemic injustice (no one can prepare you for long hours on your feet, long hours screaming for recognition of your humanity), we stood with our signs tucked safely under our arms as the organizer introduced some parting words. The speaker was an older Black man, the weariness of

Zaina Arafat’s debut novel, You Exist Too Much, follows a Palestinian American teenager as she becomes an adult, navigating her queerness and love addiction. It follows her romantic relationship as well as her recklessness on the side, and where that may have come from. Finally, she admits herself to a treatment center that will make

A Rally for the Right-Wing Cult of Personality Megha Majumdar Author of A Burning Share article An Excerpt from A Burning by Megha Majumdar At the end of a school day, when the bottoms of his trousers are soiled, PT Sir holds his bag in his armpit and exits the building. Outside, the narrow lane is

Historical markers for Ismail Yassine. They are both off of 26th of July Street. Photo courtesy of the author Suffering news fatigue, a writer-translator walks Cairo’s streets searching for the homes of the stars of the old black-and-white Egyptian movies providing her comfort throughout the pandemic. This plague feels absurd, a little like a B-grade movie,

Kathryn Nuernberger is the author of the poetry collections RUE, The End of Pink, and Rag & Bone, and the essay collections Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past and The Witch of Eye (forthcoming in 2021). Her most recent poetry collection, RUE, is an ecofeminist meditation on plants that were historically used as birth control.

Museums are a lot like libraries and bookstores: quiet, contemplative spaces filled with wondrous objects that can light up your imagination and transport you to a different time and place. Now, like so many other cultural institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, most are shuttered for the time being. By one estimate, about a third of

In November 2012, the founder and figurehead of a regional rightwing party died, and to mark his passing, Bombay city went into a complete, daylong shutdown. Shops, markets and roads were ordered to close without notice, and people largely stayed indoors—a combination of acceptance and fear. In response, a young woman posted a comment on

In Case of Emergency, Have Your Cat Call an Ambulance The True Story Jessie was eating olives over the kitchen sink when she woke up in the emergency room. She’d almost died, but only almost. “It’s a good thing you called 9-1-1 before you hit the floor,” the doctor told her. “But I didn’t call.”

The history of progress is a history of protest. We would have few of our modern rights if no one had stood up and demanded them. The books on this list cover some of the largest protests in the last century, protests that reshaped societies and reimagined futures. These books show that small groups of

In this story of lengthy quarantine due to an unnamed virus, a woman sneaks into the mountain to collect ferns—many ferns. Simultaneously evoking life under past Chilean political oppression and living under recent worldwide quarantines due to Covid-19, this Cortazarian story marks the author’s English-language debut. Let the tall ferns sleep,silent as a secret,let them