Claudia Rankine’s Quest for Racial Dialogue
Is her focus on the personal out of step with the racial politics of our moment?
Book Review
Life on the Road Is More Than Inspiration for Your Novel
Héctor Tobar gives fictional travelogues an intervention with the cheeky, self-aware The Last Great Road Bum.
What to Do About William Faulkner
A white man of the Jim Crow South, he couldn’t escape the burden of race, yet derived creative force from it.
Elena Ferrante’s Master Class on Deceit
Her latest novel frames lying as a creative act.
The Groundbreaking Female Artist Who Shaped Manga History
A new collection introduces English-speaking audiences to an overlooked Japanese cartoonist who smashed both gender and genre norms during her short life.
The Best American Novelist Whose Name You May Not Know
When her first novels were published, in the mid-1970s, Gayl Jones’s talent was hailed by writers from James Baldwin to John Updike. Then she disappeared.
A KGB Man to the End
The origins of Putin’s worldview—and the rise of Russia’s new ruling class
The Dark Soul of the Sunshine State
Why Florida is the way it is
Seamus Heaney’s Journey Into Darkness
In the deepest reaches of history, the poet found a voice for the troubled present.
The Man Who Sacked Rome
Alaric the Goth wanted to be part of the empire. Instead he helped bring it down.