Literature

DEEP DIVE

An Index of Everything (and Everyone) Mentioned in Barbra Streisand’s Memoir

November 20, 2023

“I’ll show you, motherfucker!”

LIT

Bennett Sims on Style, Sebald, and His New Short Story Collection

November 17, 2023

“The one technology that I was concerned about the obsolescence of was Twitter.”

EXCERPT

How Sista Grrrl Riot Made Room for Black Queers in Punk

October 30, 2023

“Like, are we going to fight or fuck?”

LIT

Natasha Stagg on Fiction, Fuckboys, and Internet Fame

October 23, 2023

“It’s the weight of history crushing all of us.”

nineties

Ezra Petronio and Mel Ottenberg on Self Service, Big Shots, and the Stodgy French

October 17, 2023

“Everyone’s just being used at the end of the day. You’ll be front row until they decide you’re not front row.”

LIT

Ben Fama on Paranoia, Puffy Pouts, and the Perversities of the Internet

October 16, 2023

“Celebrities are already the dogs of our culture.”

Lit

Zadie Smith and Dev Hynes Grapple With the Eternal “Why”

October 11, 2023

Two weeks before the release of her sixth novel, the author and essayist spoke to her friend about middle-age injuries, SoulCycle shame, and what to do when mortality and creativity collide.

fancy feast

naked

Fancy Feast Tells Bowen Yang How to Safely Expel Bodily Fluids

October 11, 2023

“I have a set of pasties that accept Venmo.”

LIT

“It’s a Bit of a Puzzle”: Justin Torres on His Sophomore Novel, Blackouts

October 10, 2023

“For my own personal development, as somebody who’s interested in literature, I’d rather fail.”

LIT

Eliza Clark on Book Twitter, True Crime Junkies, and Her Chilling Sophomore Novel

September 29, 2023

“The weird citizen-detective stuff that’s popped up so much in the last few years is so toxic.”

LIT

“I Wanted Only Velocity”: Claudia Dey on Her Provocative Novel, Daughter

September 20, 2023

“I don’t know if I’m interested in relaxing.”

OPEN BOOK

James Frankie Thomas Tells Us His Favorite Campus Novels

September 14, 2023

“I sort of dispute the premise of this question.”

POET

“I Always Wanted to Be a Witness”: Dwayne Betts on House of Unending

September 14, 2023

“It fucked with me that we’re often entranced by ruin, but not enough to imagine doing something for the people that we are watching.”

LIT

Christine Lai on Archives, Ruins, and Her Debut Novel Landscapes

September 13, 2023

“It all looks very beautiful, genteel and civilized, but actually there is this history of destruction and brutality.”

GLOSSY

Marisa Meltzer and Busy Philipps on Glossier, Corporate Feminism, and Girlboss Lore

September 12, 2023

“I was just going to ask you how your eyebrows survived the nineties.”

Y2K

Alex Kazemi on Columbine, Content Warnings, and New Millennium Boyz

September 12, 2023

“I was trying to show that this suffocation and claustrophobia of being online is actually a very violent experience.”

LIT

Yiyun Li on Comic Books, First Drafts, and Writing Children

September 7, 2023

“I do think literature abuses children a little. They prove them dumb, right?”

IN CONVERSATION

Why Kathleen Alcott and A. Savage Said Goodbye to All That

August 23, 2023

“I have to be around people who are choosing to have a sensorial experience.”

LIT

Maya Binyam Tells Tavi Gevinson About Her Searching Debut Novel Hangman

August 8, 2023

“There are no metaphors in the book, and that was something that became important to me as I was trying to write through the narrator’s consciousness.”

yepoka yeebo

open book

Yepoka Yeebo on Her Favorite Bookstores and Literary Con Artists

August 3, 2023

“I guess you could say that WhatsApp and corruption led me to Blay-Miezah.”