Wrestling With Prejudice in Three Debut Novels
The New York times book review
At one point in Staples’s “This Town Sleeps,” the 20-something narrator, Marion Lafournier, recalls: “When I was in middle school Ojibwe class, I first learned the concept of having an Indian name. Or spirit name.
If we want a vital, creative society, we need universal dental care, too
the Washington post
At night, my gums swelled, always soon after dinner. I knew something was wrong with my teeth, but at the age of 27, I didn’t have dental insurance.
Can a Black Novelist Write Autofiction?
The New Republic
Quick: What names come to mind when you hear the term “autofiction”? Let me guess, you’re probably thinking about Rachel Cusk, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Ben Lerner, and Sheila Heti, among a few others.
Masters of Reality
The Baffler
One of the immediate casualties of Trump’s rise to power, or so we were constantly told, was the truth. Scores of pundits appeared on television and discussed Trump’s habit of obscuring or ignoring the truth altogether.
IS THERE REALLY FREEDOM IN THE OUTDOORS?
HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
About three months into the pandemic, I found myself standing at the window of my condo near downtown Washington, D.C., cradling my newborn. Outside, the sun was rising.
THE QUAKE
KULTURAUSTAUSCH
Ten years ago I was sitting on my couch and thumbing through a novel when I felt it shift beneath me. For a moment I thought I’d somehow moved the couch even though I’d been lying perfectly still.
THE AMBITIOUS AND OVERSTUFFED WORLD OF HANYA YANAGIHARA
THE NATION
Contemporary novelists have adopted an intriguing strategy to counteract the waning cultural interest in literary fiction: They depict what a camera can’t—or won’t.
An Opportunity to Act
tHE DRIFT
Two new literary genres emerged during the opening weeks of the pandemic. The first, the pandemic journal, proliferated almost as quickly as the virus that kept millions of us locked inside;
A WORLD WHERE DEATH ISN’T THE ENd
The atlantic
Perhaps the most painful moment following the death of a loved one is the split second after you reflexively pick up your phone to give them a call, or the instant after you tuck away an anecdote to share the next time you see them.
A Novel in Which Nightmares Are All Too Real
The atlantic
In 1976, the Argentine armed forces staged a coup against the president of Argentina, Isabel Perón. In short order, the military installed a junta that suspended political parties and various government functions, aggressively pursued free-market policies…
Colson Whitehead Loses the Plot
The atlantic
For the past three years, I have taught creative-writing courses at Georgetown University, and in that time, I have come to accept something I initially found strange…
teju cole and the forking paths of autofiction
The nation
In May, after months of negotiations, the Writers Guild of America announced a strike against the major Hollywood studios. Among the issues that the writers are concerned with is how artificial intelligence….
The years-long search for an enslaved author’s true identity
THE WASHINGTON POST
Gregg Hecimovich’s quest to identify the writer of ‘The Bondwoman’s Narrative’ is an inspired amalgam of genres: part thriller, part mystery and part biography.
A Redacted Past Slowly Emerges
The atlantic
This year’s winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, Justin Torres’s Blackouts is a complex story about recovering the history of erased and ignored gay lives.