Literature

Long before the question of “man versus bear” began to tear up TikTok, people have contemplated what it’s like to be with a beast. The earliest art we know of, cave paintings and rock carvings, shows humans interacting with wild animals. Over the tens of thousands of years since making those early marks, people have

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with Joni Mitchell, the new memoir by acclaimed writer Paul Lisicky, which will be published by HarperOne on February 4th, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. From the moment Paul Lisicky heard Joni Mitchell while growing up in

“Notes on Conviction” by Tania Pabón Acosta 1 When I was fourteen, I became convinced that I was a witch. My magical powers included bringing imagined things to life, seeing the future, and an ability to make inanimate objects move. The walls in our school breathed as I walked down the hall. The posters of

I love books in which a character learns, or learns to master, a new skill. I don’t necessarily buy that the character in question has to discover something deep about themself in the process of taking up Italian or marimbas, but I do believe that they’re bound to start seeing things a bit differently, to

The Night the World Melted Away When Fire Owns the Air It began with observations. Then questions. Then speculations. Then the conclusion came that Ikenna Anyanwu, who lived at 8 Okigwe Road, was sleeping with a manfriend, Gbenga Afolabi. It had to be true. What two men who cohabited, shared a bed, fed from the

“Have you heard of loneliness before?” writes Charlee Dyroff. In the not too distant future, New York City will be remembered the ancient city that once served as the “epicenter of narrative, of creation.” Loneliness as a word or concept will be mostly forgotten. Dating apps will still be a thing.  In Loneliness & Company,

What is a family? As a child, answering that question felt like the easiest thing in the world. I was still blissfully oblivious, then, to the complexities of family life. The varying configurations, the awkward dynamics. The shapeshifting brought on by birth, death and divorce. Over the years I’ve come to understand that every family

Here’s the thing about thrillers: the surprise twists force readers to break their previous versions of “reality” and face a whole new version of the story. The best thriller writers build a world for you, and just as you’re getting comfortable, they flip it upside down—and maybe smash it too, for good measure. In life,

Florida Is a Strange Wilderness Growing Inside Me Laura van den Berg Author of I Hold a Wolf by the Ears Share article Click to enlarge and scroll. An excerpt from State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg In Florida, my husband runs. Ten miles a day, seventy miles a week, a physical feat

We inherit far more from our families than a surname. Our progenitors leave their mark on us in ways we often can’t understand until we pay our own rent. Some of these qualities, of course, are admirable or anodyne—a sense of justice, a fondness for a particular cuisine, our sparkling wit—and others less admirable—a poor

Based loosely on a Grimms’ fairytale, Bear is both enchanting and suspenseful. Sam, a concessions worker on a ferry, is terrified when a bear shows up at her family’s front door. Elena, instead, grows enchanted by the bear, seeking him out in the woods and bringing him food from her job at the local country

Horror writer Gretchen Felker-Martin’s sophomore novel Cuckoo follows a group of teens in the 1990s who have been abducted and abused in a remote desert camp all on their parent’s dime. What begins as a real-life nightmare quickly reveals itself to be something much more insidious, forcing these friends, forced by circumstance, to stop the

I have nothing against grandfathers. In fact I love my own, and it was my recent experience of cutting his toenails that prompted this list. My grandfather’s toenails had grown grotesquely long and become a fall risk. As I made attempts to cut them, he kept thanking me. Alternately he mistook me for a doctor,

It’s been a blazing hot summer and we firmly believe that best remedy for beating the heat is to escape with a book. Fill up your tote bag, head to your nearest beach (or the cool comforts of an air-conditioned library) and immerse yourselves in these new releases, selected by booksellers from indie bookstores all

Possess Me, Demon, Please by Alexandra Dos Santos With swollen eyes, I sit before a g​​roup of 18-20 somethings. The air is tense, dead silent. They stare at me expectantly, waiting for the train wreck to begin. I curse myself for not wearing more makeup to cover my humanity. They can see I’m struggling, can’t

There’s no question that turning the pages of a great book is a wonderful feeling—but is it more wonderful in a hardcover or a paperback? Aside from considering quality, durability, portability, size, price, or release date, many readers simply choose the cover with the more appealing design. At times, it’s a hard decision: One cover

David Foster Wallace Rides the Amtrak 79 Carolinian Following His Successful Cruise Ship Essay, David Foster Wallace Rides the Amtrak 79 Carolinian I have now seen tetanus-laden rail yards in seven states and the District of Columbia. I have seen time suspended in a sunlit broadleaf forest while emergency services investigate reports of a vehicle

There are rules for everything in life: how to speak corporate lingo, how to pray, how to dress at a wedding, and even how to blow the candles out at your own birthday (did you make a wish?). Storytelling is not exempt from its own ordinances. Writers in any genre face a myriad of craft