“As reading declines and self-censorship grows, bookshops are shuttering in the city once hailed as the Arab world’s publishing capital.”
Literature
Posted inEditor's Pick
Is Mary Oliver Embarrassing?
“Shame seemed like an obstacle to appreciating the poet. Instead, it became the key to understanding her work.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Our Narrative Prison
“The three-act ‘hero’s journey’ has long been the most prominent kind of story. What other tales are there to tell?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Reading Behind Bars, and Beyond Barriers
“Jackie Snow reflects on what working for a books-to-prisons nonprofit has taught her about reading.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
I’d Like to Report a Murder
“Lauren Oyler and Brandon Taylor talk to hannah baer about the dark art of literary takedowns.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Children’s Books?
“All children grow up: those who write for children need, therefore, to write fiction that will speak to them both now and in their future.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Rabelaisian Enumerations: On Lists
“What sort of collection should a library hold? How should books be classified? What is the function of lists?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Does Teaching Literature and Writing Have a Future?
“Learning that one’s job might soon be eliminated by the emergence of an overhyped new technology puts one in good company.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Controversial Rare-Book Dealer Tries to Rewrite His Own Ending
“Glenn Horowitz built a fortune selling the archives of writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Alice Walker. Then a rock star pressed charges.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Against Rereading
“For those who do not reread, a book is like a little life. When it ends, it dies—or it lives on, imperfectly and embellished, in your memories.”