Sometimes the music that endures is the music a musician writes early in their career, when they’ve lived inside a bubble free from fans and critical expectations. Songwriter Liz Phair made a huge splash in 1993 with her debut album Exile in Guyville. The album spawned a devoted following and, thankfully, its own 33 1/3 book. […]
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Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction
A History of American Protest Music: This Is the Hammer That Killed John Henry
How a folk hero inspired one of the most covered songs in American history.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story
American Dirt: A Bridge to Nowhere
“Jeanine Cummins can write about Mexico — but she will be judged on whether her writing actually captures the experiential and emotional and ethical complexity of that place, and she will be judged with extra care because she is an outsider.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Man Behind Meat Loaf
Retracing the career of Jim Steinman, the songwriter responsible for some of the most operatic hits of the past 40 years.
Posted inArts & Culture, Culture, Essays & Criticism, Story
Alexa de Paris
Miles Marshall Lewis remembers a love of Prince and Paris.
Posted inNonfiction
Hot for Teacher
When a student in her writing workshop submits a piece suggesting his character could ‘take’ a teacher just like her ‘atop her desk,’ Courtney Zoffness is flooded with memories of men touching her against her will.
Posted inNonfiction
An Ocean Away From the Sanctuary of Manhattan, Signs of Peaceful Coexistence
As a Jewish New Yorker, Candy Schulman is surprised to find a small town in Andalusia celebrating the coexistence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish cultures, despite the area’s dark racist history.
Posted inArts & Culture, History, Nonfiction, Story
A History of American Protest Music: ‘We Have Got Tools and We Are Going to Succeed’
Lead Belly, Lee Hays, and the hammer songs that powered the folk movement.
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Quotes, Unapologetic Women, Writing
On the Contentious Borders of the American South
Zandria F. Robinson narrates her coming of age Memphis while examining contemporary southernness.
