Glory Edim talks about editing her new anthology, the push for equity in publishing, and how black women writers have written themselves into spaces that neglect or ignore them.
fiction
The Hospital Where
When accompanying his father to the emergency room, a writer reflects on how he developed his talent — and why that’s a story he can never tell his father.
‘I’ve Always Been Either Praised or Accused of Ambition’: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver takes a rigorous, scientific approach to her novels’ subjects — but, as a woman writer, her authority is often challenged.
Of Politics and Prose
Roxane Gay writes about the necessary and inevitable influence of politics on literature at this fraught time in history.
What Does a Political Story Look Like in 2018?
An essay in which Roxane Gay reveals how she chose the short stories for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2018 — with an eye toward writing that engaged with the political in thoughtful, engaging, diverse and inclusive ways.
Putting a New Stone on the Grave: Sjón Brings the Golem to Iceland
Sjón’s “CoDex 1962” is the fulfillment of a pact he made with the Maharal of Prague in the Old Jewish Cemetery almost three decades ago.
Army of Me
A woman who doesn’t feel like going to work today stays in bed and looks at the internet instead. She finds a blog by a fed-up call center employee who complains about the customers.
Working Through the Apocalypse: An Interview with Ling Ma
In Ling Ma’s “Severance” — a novel she began to write after getting laid off, while living partly on severance pay — the characters keep going to work, even though they know it’s the end of the world.
I Would Never Say That, But the Character, He Said It: An Interview with Catherine Lacey
“When I write, I’m creating a character, and then I’m just performing that character, and typing what they say.”
The Word ‘Hole’
The first page was blank. On the second page, in an almost illegible calligraphic script, was written “Manifesto for a House in the Sky.”
