Welcome to August! The last third of summer begins, but there’s still plenty of time to finish reading that long book you’ve been working through and plenty of time to squeeze in one last trip to the ocean/lake/river/creek/body of water Read more >
This week’s little joys are all about razzle-dazzle. We dug new music, and movies. Some of us made these things. And we drew inspiration from sparkly genre pieces, from near and far in space and time. To start with magic. Read more >
Like a lot of New York City residents, my local subway station is essentially another room in my apartment. I’m very influenced by how things are going in my underground corner of the city. And like most places in America, Read more >
August, astonishingly, is here, and it feels hard to believe that the summer is nearing its end. But so it goes. And with such so-going, you should know what I have to say next: that I come bearing the good Read more >
Last summer, Miranda July’s All Fours drove certain groupchats to frenzy. Takes were hot. Hats were made. Some of us almost came to blows about that ending, while others circulated this meme in a general gesture of support. In certain Read more >
Today, the Academy of American Poets announced the recipients of their 2025 Laureate Fellowships, which award $50,000 each to 23 poets laureate currently serving in cities and states across the country. The Academy will also “provide more than $95,000 total Read more >
This August, you can read poems and support Palestine thanks to the Sealey Challenge and The Sameer Project. The Sealey Challenge is a month-long project where participants read a book of poetry every day in August. To motivate readers, The Read more >
“There are certain historical moments when learning is more compressed and intense than others,” wrote Howard Zinn, a month after 9/11. The historian was writing in a moment of tremendous, escalating violence, and he sensed more death and destruction looming. Read more >
Image © Yuki Sugiura for Booker Prize Foundation The longlist for the 2025 Booker Prize—arguably the most prestigious award for a single work of fiction published in the UK—was announced today. The 13 books, known as the “Booker Dozen,” were Read more >
The end of July is nigh in a summer that has at once flown by and felt curiously glacial. As August approaches, I come bearing literary tidings: sixteen new books to consider in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You’ll find a Read more >
A year ago, I walked into Hollywood with the following hand of brilliant ideas. While I thought my meeting with 20th Century Studios went well, I never heard back. I was disappointed, sure. But such is life in the fast Read more >
[Last week, Columbia University reached an agreement with the Trump administration to “resolve multiple federal agency investigations into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws.” As part of the agreement, Columbia will pay a $200 million settlement to the federal government Read more >
Netflix has at last released the trailer for Train Dreams, the much-anticipated adaptation of the late Denis Johnson’s novella. Starring Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton in what some Sundance viewers have called apex performances, the film is taking a turn Read more >
If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly wondering, “How do these aloof and frankly cold male mice keep attracting partners?!” Science has an answer: Blame it on the darcin. Back in 2010, a team of biologists at the University of Read more >
It was a rough one out there. No need to beat around the bush. Our happiness involved escape. We binged period pieces and anticipated glorious trash. We snacked and cycled. We zoned out to masters at work, and applied ourselves Read more >
Another long summer week, with more downs than ups. A few too many bad stories, villains, and greats leaving the stage. And don’t stop making noise about Gaza; my colleague Dan put together a list of ways to help Gazans Read more >
“People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.” These are the words of Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, who posted on X earlier today that more than 100 people, Read more >
Another day, another great literary website bites the dust. Next summer, we’ll apparently say “auf wiedersehen” to 4Columns, a bastion of long-form arts criticism. 4Columns makes a practice of covering fringier offerings, like experimental theatre, fashion, and jazz. They publish Read more >
Random House announced today that a brand new novel by George Saunders will be landing on bookshelves this winter, on January 27, 2026. Vigil takes “place at the bedside of an oil company CEO, in the twilight hours of his Read more >
Thirty years ago this week, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless hit theaters and brought us all one of cinema’s most perfect creations—Cher Horowitz. Based on Emma Wodehouse, of Jane Austen’s Emma, Cher was as vibrant as she was delulu. Not to be Read more >