Cultural critic Michelle Dean discusses her new book Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion. Topics covered range from emotionally fraught book reviews of Susan Sontag to male blowback against the famous first line of Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer to how horrified Elizabeth Hardwick was by her friend Adrienne […]
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Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
How I Got My Shrink Back
An entanglement with her shrink-stalking protege teaches Susan Shapiro something about forgiveness.
Posted inNonfiction
Unearthing the Story: An Interview with Peter Hessler
The New Yorker writer describes his career’s circuitous route, from his start as a struggling fiction writer to becoming a China correspondent, and now the author of a new book about the Arab Spring.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction
The Changeling
Alexander Chee considers the ways in which answering the question, “What are you?” turned him into a writer.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Changeling
A personal essay in which How to Write an Autobiographical Novel author Alexander Chee considers how answering the question, “What are you?” turned him into a writer.
Posted inNonfiction
My Year on a Shrinking Island
Former baker Michael Mount explores the interplay of community, cookie dough, and changing terrain on Martha’s Vineyard
Posted inNonfiction
Dispatch from Puerto Nowhere
Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.
Posted inProfiles & Interviews
5 Questions for Kristi Coulter About Writing, Humor, and Getting Sober
“If I couldn’t find humor in sobriety, I probably wouldn’t make it.”
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Regarding the Interpretation of Others
When attempting to write a review of the official Susan Sontag biography, our reviewer finds himself on shaky ground after learning new information about the author.
Posted inNonfiction
In the Country of Women
Amid badass women and endless stories, a young California writer comes of age in the orange groves as the Golden State comes into its own.
