Best of 2023

The Best of 2023

Before 2023 closes out for good, we wanted to give you YOUR favorites back to you. Your 2023 LARB wrapped is officially here, with all the pieces our readers loved, read, and reread all year long.

LARB is in midst of our annual year-end Fund Drive. As a literary arts nonprofit, we depend on the support of our readers to keep publishing articles like these daily without a paywall. All tax-deductible donations made by December 31 will be matched by the generosity of an anonymous donor. Double your support of LARB’s free and independent publishing by giving today! Thank you!

Featured image: Frances Hodgkins, Untitled (Textile design no VIII), ca. 1925, England. Purchased 1998 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa (1998-0006-10). Accessed December 29, 2023.

Gender Criticism Versus Gender Abolition: On Three Recent Books About Gender
Grace Lavery reviews Julie Bindel’s “Feminism for Women: The Real Tribute to Liberation,” Helen Joyce’s “Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality,” and...
Jul 31, 2023
Ugly Cats and the Loneliness of Man
Lauren Collee reflects on the history of pet photography, cat memes, and cute animal rage.
Jan 6, 2023
BTS: Permission to Desire
Rani Neutill discusses the euphoric affect of BTS for Gen-X women.
Feb 17, 2023
Fuck the Poetry Police: On the Index of Major Literary Prizes in the United States
Dan Sinykin breaks down the Post45 Data Collective set on literary awards compiled by Stephanie Young and Juliana Spahr.
Jan 9, 2023
Jason Wingard’s EdTech Griftopia
Matt Seybold explores the implications of the recent grad student strike at Temple University.
Feb 23, 2023
Pathos Porn About Climate Change: On Scott Z. Burns’s “Extrapolations”
Aaron Bady reviews Scott Z. Burns’s new climate change series “Extrapolations” (Apple TV+).
Mar 25, 2023
Fact, Fiction, and the Father of the Bomb: On Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”
Alex Wellerstein assesses the depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film.
Aug 30, 2023
The Humanities Are Worth Fighting For
Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado explains why humanities scholars need to articulate a more robust defense of their disciplines.
Jul 14, 2023
I’m Looking to Jump Ship Sooner Than I Should: A Conversation with Percival Everett
Percival Everett, this year’s LARB Lifetime Achievement Award winner, in conversation with Ayize Jama-Everett.
Feb 4, 2023
Rigged Capitalism and the Rise of Pluto-populism: On Martin Wolf’s “The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism”
Jonathan Kirshner reviews Martin Wolf’s “The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism.”
May 14, 2023