The Laugh
“Neal had believed the myths about hyenas. Until he saw them kill.â€
Interview: Obreht on how National Geographic shaped her writing career.
Alice Sebold on literary prizes; Tim O’Brien on detail and imagination; original stories by Paul Theroux, Téa Obreht, Rick Bass, and others; new poetry by Linda Gregerson and Donald Hall; and much more.
“Neal had believed the myths about hyenas. Until he saw them kill.â€
Interview: Obreht on how National Geographic shaped her writing career.
A breakup letter to my therapist
Interview: McCorkle on happy endings and her irritation with Moby Dick.
“It was a swollen, gasping, netherworld creature. I had to keep it alive until they could kill it.â€
Tales of swingers, seductions, and extraordinary perversions
“Colleen was coming home from Iraq. But Moira was like a surrogate mother now, almost a surrogate wife.â€
Interview: Zentner on the new military family and the fine line between emotion and sentimentality.
“Our first hug, between thermostats and oil filters, gave me a glimpse of where our friendship might lead.â€
Interview: Harrison on his former life as a mechanic and his transformation into a writer.
In fiction, details matter. But only imagination can illuminate the human soul.
Does a national literature still have meaning in an age of open borders and polyglot cultures?
Literary awards are inherently subjective, but they are also the most powerful antidote we have to the decline of serious fiction.
David H. Freedman on smartphone apps and the perfected self, Mark Bowden on being in the dumb kids' class, James Parker on Glenn Beck, Isaac Chotiner on P. G. Wodehouse, and more
Browse back issues of The Atlantic that have appeared on the Web. From September 1995 to the present, the archive is essentially complete, with the exception of a few articles, the online rights to which are held exclusively by the authors.
See All Back Issues: September 1995