“If you have the depth, the surface can be as light as it’s possible to make it…I don’t mind that ‘Swimming Home’ is sometimes described as a ‘beach read’ — actually that’s a triumph.”
interviews
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
‘I Went Quiet…and That Allowed Me To Understand’: The Life of a Molecatcher
Marc Hamer discusses life, death, and the lost art of catching a mole.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, History, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Mathematics as a Cultural Force
Historian Amir Alexander on Euclidean geometry’s far-reaching effects.
Posted inNonfiction
‘To Be Polite By Ignoring the Obvious’: Jess Row on Unpacking Whiteness in Literature
“I was looking for texts that seem to go the extra mile in hiding something — texts that almost seem to be begging to be interpreted in terms of what’s not being said.”
Posted inStory
‘I’m Incredulous That People Do This Repeatedly. The Second Book Thing Is So Real.’
Mary H.K. Choi discusses her latest novel, which examines how “holograms and digital envoys” represent us online, and why it feels like her “second book signals the death of my first.”
Posted inBooks, Fiction, History, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘Nobody in This Book Is Going to Catch a Break’: Téa Obreht on “Inland”
‘The history of the West is a deeply turbulent one… that kept the living population in a constant state of unrest. I thought this constant state of unrest must be true for the dead as well.’
Posted inStory
‘Victims Become This Object of Fascination… This Silent Symbol.’
Rachel Monroe talks about the pitfalls of the true crime genre. “I had this feeling like I can see the whole thing and nobody else understands… That’s a real trap that we as reporters can fall in.”
Posted inNonfiction
‘The Survivor’s Edit’: Bassey Ikpi on Memory, Truth, and Living with Bipolar II
Bassey Ikpi discusses writing about mental illness. “I could count on the morning. It became the thing that existed without my input… without determining whether or not I was worthy of it.”
Posted inNonfiction
‘Horror Is a Soothing Genre … It’s Upfront About How Scary It Is To Be a Woman.’
Sady Doyle discusses the connection she draws between society’s monstrous treatment of women and woman’s archetypal monstrosity.
Posted inNonfiction
‘We Live in an Atmosphere of General Inexorability’: An Interview with Jia Tolentino
Jia Tolentino talks about what kinds of personalities thrive online, why she is suspicious of her own self-narrative, and the pervading sense that everything’s spiraling out of control.