- “We have to do this ourselves because, frankly, no one’s going to do this for us.” Emily Witt speaks with several student activists about the Never Again movement. | The New Yorker
- Hanif Abdurraqib on Black Panther, which “gives all of its black characters the space to be several things at once.” | 4Columns
- On the “poetics that are created between the intricate streets” of Mexico City—and how one writes, eats, and drinks there. | Full Stop
- The cast of the newly revived The Boys in the Band reads a selection of queer poems—by Saeed Jones, Alex Dimitrov, Ocean Vuong, and others—as curated by Danez Smith, with an introduction by Alexander Chee. | New York Times
- “Think of her as Manic Pixie Dream Archive Assistant.” On Alex Ross Perry’s new film Golden Exits, and why nobody knows how to portray librarians on-screen. | The Outline
- “I was supposed to be writing a different profile of my friend Michelle McNamara, an introduction to a brilliant new true-crime writer who, at 46. . . published our generation’s In Cold Blood.” Kera Bolonik remembers Michelle McNamara, whose book on the Golden State Killer was posthumously published today. | Vulture
- Claudia Rankine’s first play TheWhite Card—in which a black artist navigates an all-white dinner party—has premiered in Boston. | Boston Magazine
- “Her novels stick in the reader’s mind as flickering memories of places we may never have seen with our own eyes.” Jane Smiley on Willa Cather. | The Paris Review
- “Something had emerged from the creek, loped across the road, and vanished.” Téa Obreht on not seeing a moose in the woods of Wyoming. | Granta
- “I think after going through the common humiliations of a human life, I realized it just doesn’t matter. There’s nobody who can disguise himself.” From 2002, a never-before-published interview with Denis Johnson. | Longreads
- “What is exciting is the possibility of exploration, of avoiding the repetition of a voice I’ve tired of.” Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing for Captain America. | The Atlantic
- “I loved them for the simple fact that they presented humanity without artifice, illuminating humor and strangeness.” Kristen Arnett on drawing inspiration from Diane Arbus’s photographs. | drDOCTOR
- Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan has been named the new President of PEN America. | PEN America
- From a definitive biography to the fan’s perspective, 8 essential books on everyone’s favorite dad, Bruce Springsteen. | Pitchfork
- “As an adult, this is how I carry the poverty of my Mississippi youth forward with me: by remembering the emptiness inside me.” Jesmyn Ward on the complexities of raising children in her home state. | The Atlantic
From Ken Kesey to Ursula K. LeGuin, 20 literary adaptations disavowed by their original authors • MIA, the liberal men we love: Amy Butcher looks into relationships gone sour in the Age of Trump • Behind the most famous photograph ever taken: looking at the whole earth, for the first time ever • The trouble with boys: Peggy Orenstein on masculinity in the age of Trump • Returning to writing after a stage four cancer diagnosis: Annabelle Kim finds clarity in the hard truths of life and death • Joy Press on the rise of the female showrunner and Hollywood’s new Woolf Pack • Quiet lives of desperation aren’t always as desperate as they look: John Banville on the dreamlife of his parents • 50 one-star Amazon reviews of Gravity’s Rainbow • Rachel Lyons wonders if any story is too personal for one’s art • Legacies of the Soviet Empire: growing up with classic Russian literature in rural south India • From the pages of Kenzaburō Ōe to Andrés Barba, 15 of the creepiest children in literature • Steven Pinker: the world might not be quite the disaster you think it is • When Vargas Llosa met Cortazar: Paris, city of exiles • If they gave Oscars to books, our 2017 nominees (with apologies to the National Book Awards, the real Oscars for books!)
On Book Marks:
Nothing Short of Revolutionary: On Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls, the book the Catholic church in Ireland called “a smear on Irish womanhood” • New works by Marilynne Robinson, David Mamet, and Mario Vargas Llosa feature among the 5 Books Making News This Week • This week in Secrets of the Book Critics: Rebecca Steinitz on Bleak House, Balanced Reviewing, and Spectacular Pakistani Novels • Joyce Carol Oates on a #MeToo parable, Mark Bowden on an unsparing army memoir, Josephine Livingstone on a true story of schizophrenia, and more Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week • Laura Lippman’s erotic thriller, John Banville’s Dublin memoir, the latest from Walter Mosley, and more all feature among our Best Reviewed Books of the Week
