Essays

Essays

The Unfolding of Time in Paint

My encounters with Joan Mitchell's panels
Rachel Cohen
Sepia toned photograph showing painter Joan Mitchell behind a canvas in her studio
Memoir

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

I worked for the novelist in her final months. I thought she wanted to kill me.
Elena Gosalvez Blanco
A Closer Read

Taking Offense

Reading through bad feeling
Garth Greenwell
Essays

How Mrs. Dalloway Began

Slipping into Virginia Woolf’s sentences
Edmund de Waal
Essays

When Does a Divorce Begin?

Most people think of it as failure. For me it was an achievement.
Anahid Nersessian
Dan Fox as a child with his nain, or grandmother, in the chicken-filled yard of Siambr Wen, near Llanrwst, North Wales, UK
Essays

What Happened When I Began to Speak Welsh

By learning my family's language, I hoped to join their conversation.
Dan Fox

Browse

Essays

The tombstone of Naomi Wise.
Essays

The Murder of “Omie Wise,” 1808

Notes on a killing
Harold Schechter
June 29, 2018
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Essays

The Colt-Adams Affair, 1841

Notes on a murder
Harold Schechter
June 25, 2018
A detail of a screaming face
Essays

Sensitivity/Enlightenment

A distinction
Feisal G. Mohamed
June 5, 2018
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Essays

The Trunk Murders, 1931

Notes on a killing
Harold Schechter
May 27, 2018
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Essays

Religion/Fundamentalism

A distinction
Feisal G. Mohamed
May 21, 2018
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Essays

The Kidnapping of Little Charley Ross, 1874

Notes on a killing
Harold Schechter
May 14, 2018
Flemish painting of people paying taxes
Essays

Deep Politics, Shallow Politics

Feisal G. Mohamed
May 10, 2018
A typewriter. https://www.flickr.com/photos/22017189@N00/2621358221
Essays

100 Things About Writing a Novel

What to do—and when to do it
Alexander Chee
April 1, 2018
A still of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts in "The Andy Griffith Show."

Mayberry, USA

Visiting the inspiration for this quintessential American town.
Yunte Huang
April 1, 2018
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Essays

My Fountain Pen

J. D. McClatchy
April 1, 2018