Today, I want to honor the stories of women who left religion (the Christian faith, in particular), and these are four thoughtful, poetic meditations.
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Pursuit of Writing and the Problem of Entitlement
Entitlement operates at a more basic and often unconscious level. It’s a kind of defensive snobbery, a delusion that the world and its constituent parts—whether a product or a piece of art or a loved one—exist to please you. This is why I often find it disheartening to eavesdrop on people at the annual Association […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
On the Great Silk Road
Wracked with survivor’s guilt after a tragic car accident, a young woman finds herself looking for meaning in Uzbekistan: One of the few Peace Corps pamphlets I ever read came to my home in Arizona about three weeks before my departure to Uzbekistan. I don’t think I read all the way through, but it told […]
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews
Celebrating Singlehood and Reclaiming the Word ‘Spinster’
An interview with Kate Bolick about the single women in history who helped her understand how she could live on her own terms.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Love, Identity, and Genderqueer Family Making
An excerpt from Maggie Nelson’s ‘The Argonauts’.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
The Lives of Nuns: A Reading List
Life inside the cloister is fascinating. Poverty, silence, chastity, obedience: these are not characteristics most of us would devote our lives to. These women find freedom in strictures and structure. What is it like inside the convent walls? Here are five pieces explore the lives of nuns and those inspired by their works.
Posted inFiction, Quotes
Ben Lerner on Real-Life Experiences in Fiction
The author talks with The Believer about how real experiences make their way into books.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Stories From Writers From the National Book Festival: A Reading List
Surrounded by thousands of people at the Washington Convention Center buying books from the Politics & Prose pavilion, taking pictures with Clifford, moving downstairs to sneak into a panel by Dav Pilkey or Louisa Lim or Cokie Roberts, and waiting in line to meet their literary heroes, I felt like I could levitate. I thought: These are […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Fantastic, Utopic Dream of Emojis
Some people use emojis sparingly, some with abandon; some are practical while others are creative; even emoji meanings are highly personal—smiley poop comforts my friend, grosses out my mom, makes my sister think of changing diapers. Emojis today are in a similar fluid state as the English language in the 16th century: Anything goes and […]
Posted inQuotes
In Her Own Words: Being Maxine Kumin
I was a closet poet always. I didn’t stop writing poetry just because Wallace Stegner told me I was a terrible poet. I went underground. I had exempted English A at Harvard, which was a big mistake. Everybody should take it. They bucked me up to a high-level class in creative writing. It was all […]
