David Hoon Kim Found in Translation “For me, there’s my life before I learned French and my life after. Akira Mizubayashi writes that he was born in French at the age of nineteen. I feel similarly.” July 24, 2021
Imani Perry Dredging Up the Ever-Living Past “History itself is a form of storytelling. We learn about the human condition, about decency, about love, about cruelty, about all manner of matters.” July 17, 2021
Robert Macfarlane Ramblin’ Man “I’m fascinated by the notion of storytelling as wayfinding. The compact between narrative and walking is ancient—every path tells.” July 10, 2021
Elizabeth Spiers Oh, Mood of Alabama “Most of the red states should probably be purple states but some combination of voter suppression, under-resourcing, and gerrymandering prevents that.” July 3, 2021
Gary Saul Morson The Prophetic Character of Russian Literature “Pasternak remarked that ‘a book is a squarish chunk of hot, smoking conscience—and nothing else!’ Russian writers asked ultimate questions under extreme conditions.” June 26, 2021
Jill Filipovic Beyond Digital Feminism “When I was a young blogger, stories about motherhood and reproductive rights were often relegated to the style section. Feminist bloggers reshaped mainstream media.” June 19, 2021
Hari Kunzru On a Quest to Know Everything “We’re living through a moment when the inhuman scale and complexity of the world has been made visible to us, and we are reacting in human ways. Paranoia is understandable, even logical.” June 12, 2021
Priyamvada Natarajan A Proclivity for the Unknown “I was always attracted by the cosmos—the night sky and the deep, dark mysteries it held have always seduced me.” June 5, 2021
Francesca Mari The True Cost of Living “Gross inequity begets precarity and suffering, which begets fear, shame, and frustration.” May 29, 2021
Fintan O’Toole Theater, Politics, and Critic “The way the personal and the political overlap in certain public lives can be illuminating for both arenas.” May 22, 2021
