Toni Morrison’s Definition of a Legacy
As a writer and an editor, she put humanity plainly on the page, where it would outlast her and her critics alike.
Boris Kachka
Boris Kachka is a senior editor at The Atlantic. He is the author, most recently, of Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
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Jack Mitchell / Getty When the Status Quo Doesn’t Cut It
Alternatives to the medical or economic state of affairs offer hope—and danger.
Sebastian Mast / Connected Archives The Last True Private Realm
When our waking thoughts get transmuted into dreams, what do we learn?
Harry Gruyaert / Magnum What’s Next for America’s Largest Creative-Writing Conference
Trump’s executive orders have made it downstream to authors.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Bettmann / Getty; Bonnie Cash / Bloomberg / Getty. The Danger of a Too-Open Mind
Perhaps being persuadable is overrated—at least if it means “coming to accept the unacceptable.”
GraphicaArtis / Bridgeman Images The Place of Politics in Fiction
Should novelists write the world as it is or as it should be?
David Avazzadeh / Connected Archives Thinking About Divorce in a New Way
Haley Mlotek’s new memoir finds a fresh way to talk about the dissolution of a marriage.
Illustration by Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic. Sources: whitemay / Getty; Peopleimages / Getty. A New, Unbearably Honest Kind of Writing
Two authors’ memoirs attempt to communicate intensely isolating experiences to readers.
Heritage Images / Getty What to Read in the Face of Disaster
Can any writer offer useful wisdom when ash rains over a metropolis?
Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Heritage Images / Getty. Why We Celebrate When Copyright Expires
Every January 1 in the Books department, we like to make an extra toast for a concurrent holiday: Public Domain Day.
Silver Screen Collection / Getty
