Literature

Mosab Abu Toha’s second poetry collection, Forest of Noise, is a heart-wrenching account of life in Gaza, under the tightening grip of the Israeli Occupation. Abu Toha morphs his stories in verse, into a range of forms. Some written as letters from Gaza, detailing the minutiae of everyday life under siege, “Children feel petrified at

Rutherford B. Hayes is one of those presidents that can be hard to identify. Sure, most people know the name and perhaps know he falls somewhere on that foggy list between the more well-known Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Yet the election of Hayes marked a pivotal moment in the history of voting. Hayes was

Fall is the biggest season for literature, the most anticipated titles are released in September and awards season commences in November. To sort through this glorious deluge, we asked our trusted friends with the most impeccable literary taste for their recommendations for the buzziest new books, the ones they’re most excited for and can’t stop

We hear an old song—the soundtrack to a first kiss, a piece from a funeral—and the past is suddenly alive again, as vivid as a spectre at the foot of our bed. It’s not surprising that we describe melodies as haunting. This is the magic of music.  In my novel And He Shall Appear, I

Stereo Instructions by M.D. McIntyre Everything I know about the dead I learned from Beetlejuice. I didn’t see Beetlejuice in theaters when it was released in 1988, but it became a favorite a few years later when I rented it for sleepovers and watched it on cable tv. Back then I drank Vernor’s Ginger Ale

Even though Wright Thompson grew up in the Mississippi Delta, he was in college before he learned about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old child from Chicago who was tortured and murdered in the Mississippi Delta, and whose death helped ignite the civil rights movement. Due to subsequent, intentional erasure by the white community, Thompson himself didn’t

I’m Frighteningly Horny for My Girlfriend’s Ghost Fucking Ghosts! My girlfriend visits every October. She died a couple years ago. I want to break up with her but the sex is too good. She possesses my Magic Wand to make it vibrate faster, louder, harder. I come, screaming into a pillow as the overworked motor

Cebo Campbell’s debut novel, Sky Full of Elephants, revolves around a shocking and audacious premise. “They killed themselves. All at once,” the novel begins, “they” meaning all the white people in the world, who end their lives by walking into the nearest bodies of water. In America, where the novel takes place, centuries of an

We’re living in a never-before-seen age of prominent queer representation in our media…but that’s not to say that it’s perfect. We’re more likely than ever to come across queer characters in the pages of our books, but often those queer characters are depicted in a specific way: gentle, pretty, romantic but not particularly sexual, inherently

Perhaps no living Bangladeshi will ever forget the afternoon of August 5, 2024. How none of us had slept the previous night, our icons glowing like candles throughout a night vigil on social media. How morning crept in with the fear and determination of thousands of Bangladeshis striding from across the country toward the capital.

Excavating My Sexual History as a Party Trick Charlie Sorrenson Share article Circles, Triangles, Squares by Charlie Sorrenson At some point in the conversation we had migrated to the kitchen floor, arranging our bodies into a loose, humanoid square: me leaning against the island, Lisa against the stove, MJ against the sink, and Farouk’s former

“how lonely it can be / to be a certain type of character. singular purpose. looped dialogue,” writes Summer Farah in her poetry chapbook I could die today and live again, published by Game Over Books in 2024. The collection, which explores empire, intimacy, grief, and play amidst the backdrop of The Legend of Zelda,

Several months ago I was lucky enough to meet a Riverhead publicist at a mixer for Black folks who work in book publishing. We started chatting, and she mentioned that she was working on Danzy Senna’s soon to be released novel, Colored Television. I felt, in that moment, like a chasm in the earth had

Naomi Cohn’s memoir focuses on her progressive vision loss and her embrace of braille as an act of reclaiming her love of reading and writing, along with an expanded sensory and sensual existence in the world. Intertwined with this focus are themes braided and bountiful, including a history of Louis Braille and his writing and

If we’re lucky enough to reach old age, our lives will continue to surprise us—in ways that are as varied and utterly transformative as our youth. In speaking to friends and elders, I got to see the range of experiences that someone can have later in life, on their path to deeper self-discovery: uplifting, sad,

Electric Literature turned 15 years old and to commemorate, we put a birthday hat on our patron saint Edgar Allan Poe and threw ourselves the campiest party we could imagine. On October 18th, our community of readers, writers, and staff gathered for the Masquerade of the Neon Death at Littlefield in Brooklyn to dance, party,

Grief is perhaps the most universal experience we share. It transcends everything that categorizes us—culture, class, religion, gender, even species. Yet for something with such ubiquitous reach, it is an entirely individual process. There’s no road map for when and how those five key stages will manifest, or for the infinite secondary stages one encounters. 

An Excerpt from Women Surrounded by Water by Patricia Coral Marriage Addictions I I remember how you cried when I walked towards you and took your hand in my hand. After the wedding, we danced all night in Casa de España to our favorite songs, to our friends’ joy, to our love. My feet were