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.
The Book That Said the Words I Couldn’t Say
As a teen, I didn’t always know how to express myself. A now-forgotten novel helped me find my voice.
Lilies
A poem by Mary Oliver, published in The Atlantic in 1988
Each Sentence Is One You Can Feel
In All the Lovers in the Night, Mieko Kawakami draws on her poet’s sensibility to explore the awful intensity of human emotions.
Ngũgĩ in America
At 84, the Kenyan writer and perennial Nobel runner-up reflects on his Southern California home and the problem of sameness.
Motherhood’s Impossible, All-Consuming Demands
Works that meditate on the struggle to maintain an independent sense of self after having children: Your weekly guide to the best in books
How Hulu’s Conversations With Friends Got Sally Rooney So Wrong
The novel is darkly observant of Millennial malaise. The TV adaptation is a different story.
The Fight to Decouple Sex From Marriage
Sixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown’s best-selling book promised women sexual freedom. Today, it reads like an omen.
The Rotten Core of Our Political System
In their new account of the 2020 election, two New York Times reporters reveal just how broken American democracy has become.
What It Would Take to See the World Completely Differently
The marine biologist Rachel Carson saw immense value in helping the public cultivate a sense of wonder.
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