Rahawa Haile writes about hiking over 2000 miles on the Appalachian Trail in 2016, and carrying with her books by black authors, which she’d leave behind for others to find at shelters along the way.
Sari Botton
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Black Books Lit My Way Along The Appalachian Trail
Eritrean-American essayist and short story writer Rahawa Haile writes about hiking the Appalachian Trail and traveling through trail towns as a black woman alone. She brings along books by black authors and leaves them behind for others to find at shelters along the way. In keeping with her 2015 Short Story of the Day effort […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Cat Marnell’s Rehab Writing Retreat
At The Cut, Emily Gould profiles Cat Marnell, the famously self-destructive former beauty editor who miraculously managed to complete a compelling, well-written memoir, How to Murder Your Life — despite first blowing her entire advance on drugs.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Under Autocracy, The Eroding of Trust
At New York Magazine, Russian-born Michael Idov reflects on the few years he returned to Moscow to edit the Russian edition of GQ, beginning in 2011. He was surprised by the culture of cynicism he encountered — a response to constant deceit and crushing autocracy under Vladimir Putin. And he wonders whether a similar lack of trust and sense of defeat are in store for the U.S. under Trump.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Cat Marnell is Still Alive
An insightful profile of Cat Marnell, author of the new memoir, How to Murder Your Life, a writer and beauty editor perhaps best known for the self-destructive tendencies that cost her various high-profile jobs and landed her frequently in rehab. Author Emily Gould casts Marnell as more together than many give her credit for, and […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Russia: Life After Trust
Michael Idov, who’d returned to his native Russia for work a few years ago, recalls the culture of cynicism and sense of hopeless defeat under a deceitful, immovable “hybrid regime…an autocratic one that retains the façade of a democracy.” He suggests Americans take note, as we may be headed in that direction ourselves.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Heart-Work: Writing About Trauma as a Subversive Act
An essay by memoirist Melissa Febos in which she responds to her Sarah Lawrence students’ fears around writing about their traumas, and concerns about being accused of “navel gazing.” She rejects the notion that there are already too many stories about trauma and personal experiences out there–along with other notions about memoir as narcissistic, arguments […]
Posted inFiction, Nonfiction, Quotes
Obama by the Books
In Vulture, book critic Christian Lorentzen suggests we dispense with terms like “postmodern” and “postwar” when discussing novels, and instead analyze them relative to the presidential administrations under which they were released. What will we mean when someday we refer to Obama Lit? I think we’ll be discussing novels about authenticity, or about “problems of […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A New Era of Unreality: Stop Making Sense, or How to Write in the Age of Trump
In the Village Voice, Aleksandar Hemon explores the “unreality” of a Trump presidency, likening this era of American history to the start of the war in Bosnia in 1992, and calling for new literature that doesn’t shy away from the conflicts and destruction ahead.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Stop Making Sense, or How to Write in the Age of Trump
An essay on the importance of embracing in literature the conflict and destruction likely to arise in America in the coming four years. The piece is written from the perspective of a Bosnian-born novelist who got stuck in the United States in 1992 because of conflict in his native country that upended everything he felt […]