For Women, Is Exercise Power?
In Let’s Get Physical, Danielle Friedman traces the fascinating, loaded history of female fitness.
To Age
A poem by W. S. Merwin, published in The Atlantic in 2002
The Books 20 Years in the Making
Highly anticipated novels from authors who waited decades to return: Your weekly guide to the best in books
Eight Ghost Stories in Which the Dead Won’t Go Quietly
Literature has a long tradition of using the genre to address unsettled pasts and forgotten traumas.
Thinking of My Wife as a Child by the Sea, While We Clean Mussels Together
A poem for Sunday
The Books Briefing: Five Short Stories to Read This Weekend
Exploring the diversity of The Atlantic’s original fiction: Your weekly guide to the best in books
About It
A poem for Sunday
‘I Am a Writer Because of bell hooks’
When the revolutionary intellectual found her voice, she helped a generation of Black Kentucky women writers find theirs too.
Five of the Best Books of 2021
The novels, nonfiction, and memoirs that stood out most: Your weekly guide to the best in books
Joan Didion Was Our Bard of Disenchantment
The prolific writer, who died today at 87, was a penetrating anthropologist of American myths.
The 20 Best Books of 2021
The novels, nonfiction, and memoirs that stood out most
Fiction Meets Chaos Theory
Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel tweaks American history and traces the disorienting consequences.
Rewriting the Book of Genesis
Cast into political exile, and into darkness by his failing eyesight, John Milton was determined to accomplish “things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.”
The Books Briefing: The Quiet Skill of Mass-Market Novels
Many popular authors are compelling storytellers who sharply analyze power dynamics and offer vivid portraits of daily life. They are also frequently dismissed by the literary establishment.
Beware Prophecies of Civil War
The idea that such a catastrophe is unavoidable in America is inflammatory and corrosive.
What You Missed
A poem for Sunday
Truth Is Stranger Than Autofiction
Works that reveal or revise the lives of their authors: Your weekly guide to the best in books
This Is a Shakedown
Texas has a book-banning problem.
The Kleptocrats Next Door
The United States has a dirty-money problem.
The Impossible Politics of Johnny Cash
He was beloved by Americans who could agree on little else. Was he too eager to please?
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