We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in arts and culture.
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Posted inStory
Judge a Book Not By its Gender
Lisa Whittington-Hill suggests there’s a distinct gender bias in celebrity memoirs. Where female celebrities are expected to expose all, male writers get to write about whatever they want.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
Finding Time to Write Even During the Busiest of Times
How Jami Attenberg helped form a supportive online literary community with #1000WordsofSummer.
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Highlight, Quotes
I Paid $710 to Sneak Into This Club
We wear slogan tees to signal our politics and identify ourselves to like-minded thinkers — but maybe they mask more than they reveal.
Posted inNonfiction
‘I Was Trapped Forever In This Present Tense’: Carmen Maria Machado on Surviving Abuse
“She was always afraid of my voice. That was the defining factor of our relationship — fear of what I would say and write and do. She’s afraid of … the narrative that I possess.”
Posted inEssays & Criticism, History, Quotes
In the End, It’s All Just the Stories We Tell
Diana Arterian’s sad, lyrical essay on the legacy of the Armenian Genocide in the diaspora centers on a family story that everyone has heard — but that no one knows the truth of.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Kissed a Girl
Vickie Vértiz maneuvers her way around teenage love, friend envy, and being outed by her Mexican mother.
Posted inNonfiction
When the Dishes Are Done, I Wonder About Progress
In “Coventry,” Rachel Cusk draws a connection between politeness and narrative death, rudeness and tragedy, storytelling and war.
Posted inStory
‘I Was Interested in the People Who Are Stuck With These Memories.’
Steph Cha discusses her new novel “Your House Will Pay,” the LA Riots, the Korean American Angeleno community, her 3,600 Yelp reviews, and pushing back against gatekeepers in publishing.
Posted inNonfiction
‘They Were Growing Seedlings…Which Would Sprout To Become Supreme Court Justices’
Ruth Marcus discusses the Federalist Society’s 30-year Justice-grooming project, the botched investigations, and everything else that brought us “too big to fail” Brett Kavanaugh.
