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

Essays

I, Too, Am John Clare

Becoming a different kind of postcolonial writer
Amit Chaudhuri
June 10, 2024
Essays

Jean Stein’s Rolodex

The legendary editor’s social genius
Benjamin Anastas
June 10, 2024
Essays

Louise Glück’s Late Style

The fabular turn in the poet’s last three books
Teju Cole
June 10, 2024
Essays

The Critic as Friend

The challenge of reading generously
Merve Emre
June 10, 2024
Objects of Desire

Absolute Darkness

A curious disorientation
Lydia Davis
June 3, 2024
The Moment

Palestinian Solidarity, Then and Now

The power of encampment as a form of protest
Feisal G. Mohamed
May 29, 2024
Objects of Desire

Tiger’s Eye Mala

The prayer beads that saw me through a feverish midlife crisis
Lauren Groff
May 22, 2024
Tribute

Paul Auster

Why the novelist’s brand of postmodern detective fiction still matters
Ben Libman
May 7, 2024
Essays

Yellow Band

A diagnosis alters a writer's relationship to his work
Steve Edwards
April 29, 2024
Objects of Desire

Omega Constellation

Unwinding what I lost
Alexander Chee
April 10, 2024