What Writers Can Take Away From the Bible
The National Book Award finalist Min Jin Lee on how the story of Joseph, and the idea that goodness can come from suffering, influences her work
By Heart
Authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature.
Cujo's Unexpected Lesson About Parenting and Art
The comedian and writer John Hodgman explains what Stephen King’s 1981 horror novel taught him about risking mistakes in storytelling—and fatherhood.
How Surrealism Enriches Storytelling About Women
The author Carmen Maria Machado, a finalist for this year’s National Book Award in Fiction, discusses the brilliance of an eerie passage from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
What Writers Can Learn From Goodnight Moon
The Little Fires Everywhere novelist Celeste Ng explains how the surprising structure of the classic children’s book informs her work.
Jenny Zhang: 'Tiny Stories' Are Vital to Literature
The Sour Heart author discusses Roberto Bolaño’s “Dance Card,” humanizing minor characters through irreverence, and homing in on history’s footnotes.
How Rudyard Kipling Turned His Guilt Into Fiction
The novelist Scott Spencer on the English author’s short story “The Gardener” and what it reveals about transforming shame into art
Finding the Emotional Truth in Horror Writing
The novelist Victor LaValle on how dark material hits hardest when it’s balanced out with wonder
Keeping Track of Every Book You’ve Ever Read
A New York Times editor on the coffee-stained list she’s kept for almost three decades
When Memories Are True Even When They’re Not
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout discusses Louise Glück’s poem “Nostos” and the powerful way literature can harbor recollection.
When Writing Is Actually About Waiting
Hannah Tinti, the author of The Good Thief, explains what she learned about patience and risk from the T.S. Eliot poem "East Coker."