“I joke that this is the great Zambian novel you didn’t know you were waiting for.”
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Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Not Quite Not White
Sharmila Sen grew up understanding distinctions between castes and religions, between the educated and the illiterate. Race was a distinction she didn’t understand until she came to America.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Hiking With Nietzsche
An infirmed Friedrich Nietzsche hiked the Swiss Alps to work on his writing. Philosopher John Kaag followed Nietzsche’s trail, taking the great thinker’s ideas out of his books and into the world.
Posted inReading List
Boo: A Reading List About Ghosts
Ghost stories point to a reality beyond our own — or, at the very least, to an expanded understanding of what this plane of existence encompasses. (And they’re fun.)
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story
Hellhound on the Money Trail
Standard recording contracts screwed Bluesmen out of royalties in the early 1900s, and the system was no different when Columbia released “Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings in 1990.”
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story, Writing
Stalin’s Scheherazade
An opportunistic literary caper became a lifelong con — with no possibility of escape.
Posted inStory
What Gwyneth Paltrow and Great Expectations Taught Me about the Male Gaze
Sara Petersen explores the origin of her desire to perform a certain type of femininity, and how the performance ultimately led her to pursue motherhood as a path to purpose.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
Posted inArts & Culture, Editor's Pick, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews
‘Country Music … Was Anything BUT Pure’: An Interview with Bill Malone and Tracey Laird
The co-authors of ‘Country Music USA’ – a revised edition of the genre’s definitive history – talk about the music’s African-American tributaries, its unpredictable politics, country radio’s woman problem, and working on Ken Burns’ forthcoming doc.
