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May 2011

How inspiration becomes art, Stephen King's new fiction story, why Malcolm X lives on in Barack Obama, the joy of not cooking, more

Features

Project: First Drafts

Project: First Drafts

How does that spark of creativity find its way to the canvas, the page, the dinner plate, or the movie screen? Inside the messy, maddening, and mysterious process of creating something new. With Paul Simon, Frank Gehry, Tim Burton, Chuck Close and others.

Herman Wouk Is Still Alive

Herman Wouk Is Still Alive

New fiction from Stephen King

Q&A With Stephen King: An interview with the author on the creative process, the state of fiction, and more

The Cross Word

The Cross Word

A story and puzzle in 76 clues


Dispatches

The Iowa Caucus Kingmaker

The Iowa Caucus Kingmaker

Bob Vander Plaats offers GOP candidates a choice: join his crusade against gay marriage or lose the primary.

Hear Me Now?

Hear Me Now?

The Verizon Guy gets his life back.

The Nostalgia Trap

The Nostalgia Trap

In Brooklyn and London, the future is losing to the past.

Running the Asylum

Running the Asylum

A schizophrenic tries to save the mentally ill in Pakistan, a land gone mad.

Sister Schmuck Takes a Stand

Sister Schmuck Takes a Stand

A nun fights to recover her good name.

Valencia Is Burning

Valencia Is Burning

Each spring, Spanish artists construct masterpieces—and then set them ablaze at the party of the year.

Are You Following a Bot?

Are You Following a Bot?

How to manipulate social movements by hacking Twitter


Books

The Great Los Angeles Novel

The Great Los Angeles Novel

HBO’s Mildred Pierce is based on James M. Cain’s book that has to go down as one of the great failures of American fiction.

Philip Larkin, the Impossible Man

Philip Larkin, the Impossible Man

How the most exasperating of poets met his match

The Legacy of Malcolm X

The Legacy of Malcolm X

Why his vision lives on in Barack Obama


Columns

The Joy of Not Cooking

The Joy of Not Cooking

High-end retailers are counting on us to spend more money on our kitchens—even as we spend less time in them.

How Heavy Metal Is Keeping Us Sane

How Heavy Metal Is Keeping Us Sane

Dark and disturbing, the music is honest about human nature.


The Biggest Story in Photos

The Unreal World

May 31, 2012
The Design Essentials of the Perfect Pair of Pointe Shoes
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The Atlantic Monthly

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.

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