Literature

If you are a debut author or a literary fiction and nonfiction stan, you’ve likely heard of Debutiful. Adam Vitcavage launched the podcast and website dedicated to highlighting the work of debut authors in January 2019. It has since become a beacon in the literary community, helping over 100,000 readers discover debut books. It’s one

His Father’s Memories Are Not His Own Bill Cotter Share article The Good Room by Bill Cotter This story includes references to child sexual abuse. On his first visit to his father at the new nursing home, Douglas Brunig was surprised to find that the elderly man, whom he had not seen in a decade,

From Gothic castles and country manors to idyllic cottages and childhood homes, houses in literature have helped evoke atmosphere, shape characters’ personalities, and change their lives. It’s easy to recall famous literary houses. Pemberley, Gatsby’s mansion, Howard’s End, Green Gables, the little house on the prairie, and other beloved homes are sometimes better remembered than

“I never thought I’d be one of those people,” she said. T Kira Madden and I were sitting in the private room of a fancy strip-mall restaurant in Albany, New York, and I was eating a very expensive salad. Earlier that afternoon, we had given a reading at a local bookstore with T Kira’s then-fiancé

In our monthly 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 time, we’re talking to Christine Ma-Kellams, who’s teaching an online eight-week fiction workshop. From improving narrative structure and pacing to navigating the world of literary agents and publishers, this

Take a break from the news We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven’t read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox. YOUR INBOX IS LIT Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of

When I first saw Ghost World on cable TV in the Philippines during my senior year of high school, I immediately recognized Thora Birch with her thick-framed glasses and jet-black bob. I remembered her character in American Beauty, and, here again, as Enid, she continued to exude the attitude of someone who had better things

My Autism Has a Mighty Appetite Have you seen my autism? It all started when I was born. Worse yet, it started on the taxpayer dime In the bathwater, in the atmosphere, even in the baby if a baby can get tall enough for college. It’s true, I am autism But only when you ask

Growing up, the library was not just Amanda Oliver’s favorite place but also her “first beloved destination, first embodied center… it was absolutely sacred.” However, soon after Oliver began her career as a librarian at a Title I school and then in the D.C. public library system, she witnessed how systemic racism, income inequality, the

I was in my twenties the first time I read a memoir set in Lahore, my father’s city, where I’d spent time during my childhood. I was living in Syracuse, New York, then, and I read Meatless Days hungrily, soaking in familiar places and people, and when I finished it, I read it again. I

Passing Judgment on the God-Fearing Family Next Door Chaitali Sen Author of The Pathless Sky. (novel, Europa Editions, 2015) www.chaitalisen.com Share article The Catholics by Chaitali Sen Sharmila and Laurie spent the Obama years renovating a blue two-story on Chestnut Street, a tall, narrow house with a covered front porch flanked by two giant pines.

In 2016, I compiled a list of books I’m anticipating by women writers of color because, as a reader, writer, and occasional critic, I couldn’t find many such titles. If I was having trouble, I thought, then others surely were, too. Perhaps they’d also find the list useful. The first list was one of Electric

What even is time? I had a couple conversations this past year, some of them surrounding the publication of my non chronologically-structured novel We Do What We Do in the Dark, during which the concept of “queer time” came up, this idea that LGBTQ people experience time differently, almost four-dimensionally like Vonnegut aliens. We constantly

There is a point in my novel No One Knows Us Here when my heroine does a very, very bad thing. She doesn’t have to do the bad thing—it’s not one of those “steal a loaf of bread to feed her starving family” situations. She has other options and chooses to go down the dark

It’s More Dangerous to Stand Still Mom on the Beach My mother, with two knee replacements, asked us to take her to the beach. She conjured for us warm, bright afternoons, salt breeze tickling skin, and starfish basking in their rocky pools. She told it like we might find deep truths in some sparkling sea

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 feature Ruth Joffre, author of the short story collection Night Beast, whose fiction appears or is forthcoming in The Florida Review Online, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Wigleaf

This past summer, an auntie of mine dusted off an old cardboard box of books from a cluttered storage unit, and handed me a slim blue and gold paperback with soft, slightly frayed corners and a creased spine by Octavia E. Butler. I had never read science fiction that featured a Black girl being so

Over the holidays, we asked our social media followers to vote for the best book cover of 2022 and after an especially close competition, a crowd favorite won the hearts of book lovers. From 32 beautiful cover designs, here are the semi-finalists: Valley of Want by Ross White, cover design by Ross White vs. Burning Butch by R/B