• Biography

    Music history

    On “Eleanor Rigby” as a Product of the Combined Genius of John Lennon and Paul McCartney

    Ian Leslie Considers the Musical Camaraderie and Creative Rivalry That Produced an Iconic Song

     
    By Ian Leslie  April 17, 2025
    Poets

    An Incomplete Biography of Jane Hirshfield in Six Jobs (with Poems)

    By Heather Swan  April 14, 2025
    Joan Didion

    Five Takeaways from the Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne Papers

    By Evelyn McDonnell  April 7, 2025
    Anniversaries

    On My Grandfather’s Novel: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby at 100

    By Eleanor Lanahan  April 7, 2025
    New in Nonfiction

    From the Nightmares of the Third Reich to Elon Musk: 10 Nonfiction Books to Read in April

    By Literary Hub  March 31, 2025
    Basketball

    From Child Prodigy to King of the Court: How Luka Dončić Became a Basketball Icon

    By Tim MacMahon  March 27, 2025
    Book Marks: What the Critics Are Saying
    Women's Rights

    Inside the Life and Struggle of Victorian-Era Women’s Rights Activist Annie Besant

    By Michael Meyer  March 14, 2025
    The Writing Life

    What Kafka’s Hypochondria Reveals About His Literary and Personal Life

    By Will Rees  March 12, 2025
    Singer Songwriters

    “For Your Own Damn Good.” How Alanis Morissette Gave a Voice to Her Fans’ Struggles

    By Megan Volpert  March 10, 2025
    Comics

    How Robert Crumb Channeled Mid-Century Teenage Angst Into Art

    Dan Nadel on the Formative Awkward Adolescence of an Iconic American Cartoonist

    By Dan Nadel  April 15, 2025
    On Poetry

    “Poetry Remains Indestructible.” On the Resilience of Art in the Face of Fascism

    By Spencer Reece  March 6, 2025
    Legends

    Dear Jimi Hendrix: A Letter, in Gratitude, From Jeffery Renard Allen

    By Jeffery Renard Allen  March 5, 2025
    Nonfiction

    From Bowie to Baseball to Bitcoin: Ten Nonfiction Books to Check Out in March

    By Literary Hub  February 28, 2025
    Politics

    The Rise of Ronald Reagan, a Product of California

    Michael Hiltzik on the Early Career of the Actor-Cum-Politician Who Changed America

    By Michael Hiltzik  February 26, 2025
    Music history

    How Little Richard Brought Black and Queer Culture to American Airwaves

    By Jon Savage  February 21, 2025
    The Hub

    Remembering David Ruggles, the radical abolitionist who opened the first Black-owned bookstore.

    By Brittany Allen  February 18, 2025
    Philosophy

    What Robert Frost’s Philosophy of the Human Spirit Says About His Artistic Ethos

    By Adam Plunkett  February 18, 2025
    Literary History

    An American Faerie Queene: The Uncertain Lives of Nathaniel and Una Hawthorne

    Megan Marshall on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Family, Edmund Spenser, and Biographical Lies

    By Megan Marshall  February 12, 2025
    Remembrances

    “This Will Be Fun.” On the Life and Times of a Comics Master, Jules Feiffer

    By Paul Morton  February 7, 2025
    The Hub

    How librarians saved the day in World War II.

    By Brittany Allen  February 6, 2025
    Literary Friendships

    A Friendship Across the Color Line: How Shared Southern Roots Brought a Black Writer and a White Editor Together

    By Tess Chakkalakal  February 5, 2025
    The Hub

    Want to win Leonard Cohen’s “magic writing cap?”

    By Brittany Allen  February 4, 2025
    Biography

    How an Obscure German Noblewoman Influenced the Way Anne Frank Wrote Her Diary

    By Ruth Franklin  January 29, 2025
    Menopause

    Edith Wharton and the Clarifying Rage of the Menopausal Writer

    By Deborah Williams  January 24, 2025
    craft advice

    Writing Biography Without an Archive: On Recovering a Past Believed to Be Lost

    By Vanda Krefft  March 10, 2025
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