Ajar
A poem by A. E. Stallings, published in The Atlantic in 2014
Life, Literature, This Moment of June
The allure and the friction of city life are never clearer than they are in the summer: Your weekly guide to the best in books
White Author, Black Paragons
When writing across cultural divides flattens characters
Want to Understand Socrates and Sartre? Talk With Your Kid.
A new book asks us to consider that children might have a natural aptitude for grappling with our deepest philosophical questions.
Why ‘The Watergate Three’ Are Remembered as a Duo
Doing great journalism requires an infrastructure, including a lot of talented people who don’t get bylines. Barry Sussman—the Watergate journalist named neither “Woodward” nor “Bernstein”—was one.
The Thin Line Between Sickness and Health
Nine books that helped me reframe my relationship to viruses, the most abundant biological entity on Earth
Our First Encounter With T. Rex
A new book looks at the Gilded Age discovery of the prehistoric monster and the money and egos that have driven the search for dinosaur bones ever since.
Why Is Dad So Mad?
A father dares to explore his rage.
The Past Still Needs Me
A poem for Sunday
Trauma Is Everywhere. Write About It Anyway.
Melissa Febos’s recent essay collection shows us not only how to capture the difficult, intimate details of our lives in writing, but why we should.
Learning How to Grieve in Public
What happens when private loss is widely shared instead of borne alone? Your weekly guide to the best in books
The Lessons of Newtown for the Future of Uvalde
For a town that suffers a school shooting, the months and years ahead can bring reverberating pain.
The Books That Taught a Debate Champion How to Argue
Through reading, I learned that disagreement can be a source of good, not ill, even in our polarized age.
The Ideology of the Bicycle
Jody Rosen’s new history of our two-wheeled machines proves that they might be the one thing we all have in common.
They Were Reckless and in Love, and They Were the New Hollywood
A fresh look at the story of Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward, whose turbulent lives laid the groundwork for a golden age of film.
Vision
A poem for Sunday
What a Book Can Do for a Girl
A story that changes how a child sees can, in no small way, change her life: Your weekly guide to the best in books
We Tell Ourselves Stories About Money to Live
Hernan Diaz’s new novel audaciously tells a tale of American capital—again, and again, and again.
At the Graveyard With Anne
A poem for Wednesday
Don’t Look Away From Philip Guston’s Cartoonish Paintings of Klansmen
The artist’s depictions of bumbling “hoods” lure viewers into considering the proximity of evil.
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