Why is everyone still naming their babies "Atticus"?
I mean . . . we all know about Go Set a Watchman, right? But despite the fact that the Greatest Dad in Literary History may have turned out to be a racist (at least in the mind of his Read more >
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News, Notes, Talk
Workers at The Atlantic have formed a union, which management has agreed to recognize.
Today, the writers, editors, producers, and editorial staff of The Atlantic announced that they have formed a union and asked Atlantic management to voluntarily recognize the union. The Atlantic Union is unionizing with the NewsGuild of New York, alongside other Read more >
By Walker Caplan
Are you surprised that Stephen King doesn’t outline his plots?
Depending on who you talk to* it may or may not be a surprise that Stephen King doesn’t outline the plots of his books, and instead just jumps in and writes. As he reveals in this Wall Street Journal interview, Read more >
By Jonny Diamond
The “queen of beach reads” has come under fire for “casual anti-Semitism” in her latest book.
Prolific novelist Elin Hilderbrand, dubbed “the queen of beach reads” by New York Magazine, has created controversy with a brief Anne Frank reference in her latest book—Golden Girl, published by Little, Brown—that some readers view as anti-Semitic. In a flashback Read more >
By Walker Caplan
Take a look at this bizarrely beautiful library inspired by the human brain.
There are many beautiful, innovative, thoughtfully designed libraries in the world, but few are as high-concept as Brooklyn-based architecture studio Bollingen’s proposal for Songdo Library in South Korea: the “Artificial Brain.” Reads Bollingen’s proposal, “Objects communicate with each other to Read more >
By Walker Caplan
Conservatives don’t want anti-Biden books. Should liberals be concerned?
Every time a Democratic president is in office, conservative publishing houses rush to capitalize on the opportunity, publishing political screeds against the president in the hopes of a best-seller. It’s a rule of thumb at this point—at least, until this Read more >
By Walker Caplan
Here are the best reviewed books of the week.
Sinead O’Connor’s Rememberings, Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl, Kristen Arnett’s With Teeth, and Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Read more >
By Book Marks
Shakespeare in the Park is back, with another all-Black cast.
Why, then the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open. Dust off your Elizabethan collars and prepare for some midsummer madness, Bardolators (yes, that is the correct term), because beloved Big Apple institution Shakespeare in the Park Read more >
By Dan Sheehan
Watch Allen Ginsberg perform the first song he ever wrote, on the roof of his apartment.
Rhythm was so critical to Allen Ginsberg’s work and delivery that it makes sense he was so often set to music, collaborating with The Clash, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, and Philip Glass. As part of Leita Luchelli’s Poetry Breaks project, Read more >
By Walker Caplan
Cuomo is refusing to release documents that supposedly prove staffers’ work on his book was legit.
Despite the many scandals that have besieged him this year, or rather, the many impeachment-worthy things he did, Andrew Cuomo is staying strong. Sexual harassment, lying about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, making medical professionals prioritize his friends for COVID Read more >
By Walker Caplan
David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black has won the 2021 International Booker Prize.
David Diop today became the first French writer, and the first writer of African heritage, to win the prestigious International Booker Prize for translated fiction for his harrowing novel about a Senegalese soldier fighting for France in the first world Read more >
By Dan Sheehan
Watch a young Flannery O’Connor teaching her chicken to walk backwards.
In her 1961 essay “Living With A Peacock,” Flannery O’Connor traces her adult proclivity for raising birds back to a childhood memory: “When I was five, I had an experience that marked me for life. Pathé News sent a photographer Read more >
By Walker Caplan
Has anyone seen this Bible-eating bookstore customer?
As the public gets vaccinated, bookstores are beginning to reopen, and booksellers have been able to rekindle their relationships with their most devoted customers. For Brattle Book Shop owner Ken Gloss, the reopening process of his Boston-based used and rare Read more >
By Walker Caplan
This summer, I only want to dress like Samuel Beckett.
A lot of people on the internet claim to have forgotten how to dress in the past year, and while I think this is largely obnoxious late-pandemic performance (the Times Style section thanks you for your service), I still feel called Read more >
By Jessie Gaynor
A close reading of Margaret Atwood’s sexy cicada poem.
I was doing something perfectly domestic yesterday—possibly the dishes—when suddenly I heard Margaret Atwood’s voice on the radio reading a sexy poem about cicadas. Atwood is roughly of an age and class and place with my late mother and her Read more >
By Jonny Diamond
These are our favorite New Directions books from their 85 (!) years of publishing.
This month, New Directions is celebrating their 85th birthday; the festivities will kick off this week with “a night of poetry and remembrances” featuring Will Alexander, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Susan Howe, Sylvia Legris, Nathaniel Mackey, Fred Moten, Michael Palmer, Elliot Weinberger, Read more >
