Joe Fassler

Joe Fassler, a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is a writer living in Brooklyn. His fiction has appeared in The Boston Review, and he regularly speaks to authors for The Lit Show. In 2011, his investigative reporting for TheAtlantic.com was a finalist for a James Beard Foundation Award in Journalism.

The Defiant, Optimistic Russian Poetry That Inspires Ayana Mathis

The Defiant, Optimistic Russian Poetry That Inspires Ayana Mathis

The 'Twelve Tribes of Hattie' author shares her thoughts on a 1937 work by Osip Mandelstam. Plus: a song! More »

Why the Phrase 'Less Is More' Means So Much to Tracy Chevalier

Why the Phrase 'Less Is More' Means So Much to Tracy Chevalier

The 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' author says her inspiration is minimalist architect Mies van de Rohe. More »

The Two Raymond Chandler Sentences That Changed Walter Mosley's Life

The Two Raymond Chandler Sentences That Changed Walter Mosley's Life

The acclaimed novelist shares the passage from 'The Long Goodbye' that made him an author. More »

What Flannery O'Connor Got Right: Epiphanies Aren't Permanent

What Flannery O'Connor Got Right: Epiphanies Aren't Permanent

Author Jim Shepard talks about his favorite 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find' passage. More »

Why Does the Short Story Survive?

Why Does the Short Story Survive?

The medium isn't as popular as it used to be, but a new anthology from 'The Paris Review' makes the case for its power. More »

'The Baseline Is, You Suck': Junot Diaz on Men Who Write About Women

'The Baseline Is, You Suck': Junot Diaz on Men Who Write About Women

A conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author about his new book, "This Is How You Lose Her" More »

How Junot Diaz Wrote a Sexist Character, but Not a Sexist Book

How Junot Diaz Wrote a Sexist Character, but Not a Sexist Book

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author's new collection takes an honest—and sometimes uncomfortable—look at gender dynamics. More »

The Stories Behind the 5 Most Difficult-to-Film Scenes in 'Samsara'

The Stories Behind the 5 Most Difficult-to-Film Scenes in 'Samsara'

How two filmmakers turned sulfur mines, slaughterhouses, and trash heaps into breathtaking cinema More »

Why, Exactly, Did LCD Soundsystem Quit?

Why, Exactly, Did LCD Soundsystem Quit?

'Shut Up and Play the Hits' attempts to figure out why a band would amicably break up at the height of its popularity. More »

Ray Bradbury Believed That Stories Could Change Lives

Ray Bradbury Believed That Stories Could Change Lives

The author, who died this week at 91, wrote novels and short stories that highlighted the transformative power of a good narrative. More »

Marilynne Robinson on Democracy, Reading, and Religion in America

Marilynne Robinson on Democracy, Reading, and Religion in America

An interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author about her recent collection of essays, "When I Was a Child I Read Books" More »

Maurice Sendak Scared Children Because He Loved Them

Maurice Sendak Scared Children Because He Loved Them

The author, who died this week at 83, believed kids are able to handle dark, complicated stories. More »

The Return of the Novella, the Original #Longread

The Return of the Novella, the Original #Longread

Longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, the form has been the ugly stepchild of the literary world. But that's starting to change. More »

Can the Computers at Narrative Science Replace Paid Writers?

Can the Computers at Narrative Science Replace Paid Writers?

A look at new software that could transform journalism More »

Why We Keep Talking About the Holocaust

Why We Keep Talking About the Holocaust

An interview with Nathan Englander, author of the short-story collection "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" More »

For 'Hugo' Author Brian Selznick, Life (Thankfully) Imitates Art

For 'Hugo' Author Brian Selznick, Life (Thankfully) Imitates Art

The author, whose children's book was turned into a Martin Scorsese-directed, Academy Award-nominated film, is starting to resemble some of his own characters. In his lavishly illustrated books for children, author-artist Brian Selznick writes about magic—but not the wand-waving, quidditch-broom kind. Selznick takes up the real-life wonders conjured by history's big dreamers: the impossible illusions of Harry Houdini; the phantasmagoric landscapes of… More »

Edible Education 101: A Complete Course on Modern Food Production

Edible Education 101: A Complete Course on Modern Food Production

We've gathered all of the lectures from Michael Pollan's Berkeley class in which the bestseller introduced students to several food A-listers More »

Occupy Gingrich! Newt Gets Heckled by Protesters at Brains Talk

Occupy Gingrich! Newt Gets Heckled by Protesters at Brains Talk

The former Speaker's remarks met with an Occupy-style Mic Check and shouting at the University of Iowa. More »

Why Jonathan Lethem Loves Meta-Nonfiction and Hates Superhero Flicks

Why Jonathan Lethem Loves Meta-Nonfiction and Hates Superhero Flicks

An interview with the writer about his new essay collection, "The Ecstasy of Influence" More »

How Zombies and Superheroes Conquered Highbrow Fiction

How Zombies and Superheroes Conquered Highbrow Fiction

Realistic stories once dominated American literature, but now writers are embracing the fantastical. What happened? More »

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Early Monsoon Rains Flood Northern India

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