“It’s difficult to say what you really think. You’re too aware of the traps, the dead ends, the cul-de-sacs of utterance: all the ways we let cliché steer us in a certain direction, force us to say not quite what we mean…”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
How the Meat Industry Thinks About Non-Meat-Eaters
The Atlantic talks to the editor of a meat industry trade publication about American meat production and publishing for a niche reader.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘In a Marriage, You Grow Around Each Other’: An Interview with Tessa Hadley
Tessa Hadley on gaining the sense of authority she needed to write fiction, the authors whose work opens the door for her to write, and the way we are formed by our connections with other people.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Science Fiction, Story
Dawn of Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard, John W. Campbell, and the Origins of Scientology
Read an excerpt adapted from Alec Nevala-Lee’s book, Astounding.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
The High Cost of Becoming a Writer as a Single Mom
Stephanie Land endured poverty, loneliness, and more to pursue her dream of being a writer.
Posted inBooks, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
If the Rich Really Want To ‘Do Good,’ They Should Become Class Traitors Like FDR
“Winners Take All” is an indictment of the insular, Disneyfied world of Ted Talks, “thought leaders” and philanthropy as self-help for rich people. But does it go far enough?
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Only Downside to Lower Infant-Mortality Rates? All Those Baby Books
When you don’t need to worry about the big things, you can start obsessing over the small ones.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction
We Have Always Lived in the House
In the face of tragic loss, Victoria Comella searches for the home she left behind, only to find it seventeen years later in the last place she expected.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
We Have Always Lived in the House
In the face of tragic loss, Victoria Comella searches for the home she left behind, only to find it seventeen years later in the last place she expected.
Posted inBooks, Story
Getting Tricked by Helen DeWitt
Helen DeWitt’s hectic, disruptive style reflects the content of her stories: the difficulty of living an authentic life, or telling anything like a “story,” in a ruthlessly disruptive world.
