Ayad Akhtar’s new play, McNeal, starring Robert Downey Jr., subverts the idea that artificial intelligence threatens human ingenuity.

In the second novel in her seasonal quartet, the British writer crafts a fanciful concoction of Shakespeare, folklore, and contemporary news.

My father-in-law likes one; I like the other. They’re more similar than I realized.

As beloved as Shakespeare, she shaped a vision of personal flourishing that still feels thoroughly modern.