Our favorites of 2023

Every year LARB shares the Best of 2023 roundup, a list of the most popular pieces published on our site, but we have some personal favorites, too. Behold the full round-up of LARB’s 2023 Staff Picks, featuring:

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

Fear and Writing in Xinjiang: On Tahir Hamut Izgil’s “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night” and Perhat Tursun’s “The Backstreets”
Fear and Writing in Xinjiang: On Tahir Hamut Izgil’s “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide” and Perhat Tursun’s “The Backstreets: A Novel from Xinjiang.”
Benno WeinerNov 28, 2023
Big Sur Attracts People Who Are Seeking Something: A Conversation with Lexi Kent-Monning
Brian Frank speaks with Lexi Kent-Monning about her new novel “The Burden of Joy.”
Brian Charles FrankNov 11, 2023
- Fiction
Empress Elisabeth and the Archives of Anorexia
In a preview of the new LARB Quarterly, no. 39: “Air,” Meghan Racklin considers the life and imperfectly rendered image of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
Meghan RacklinOct 20, 2023
Perma-noon: On Light Pollution and the Way We Talk About the Natural World
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 39: “Air,” Lauren Collee explores the history of light pollution.
Lauren ColleeSep 4, 2023
- LARB Lit
- Science & Technology
Is There a Politics Beyond Biopolitics? On Mårten Björk’s “The Politics of Immortality in Rosenzweig, Barth, and Goldberg”
Peter Fenves reviews Mårten Björk’s “The Politics of Immortality in Rosenzweig, Barth, and Goldberg: Theology and Resistance Between 1914–1945.”
Peter FenvesAug 24, 2023
- Philosophy & Religion
Thorns, or The Things That Humans Do in the Name of Care That Are Something Other Than Care
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 38: Earth, Juliana Spahr explores the end.
Juliana SpahrJul 28, 2023
- LARB Lit
- Memoir & Essay
The Culture Is Lit and I Had a Ball: On HBO’s “The Idol”
Sophie Frances Kemp reviews HBO’s “The Idol.”
Sophie KempJul 25, 2023
- Television
It’s (Not) Just Film Studies: On Returning to “Scream”
Kartik Nair explores the dynamics of the Scream franchise through the lens of 2023’s “Scream VI.”
Kartik NairJun 1, 2023
- Film
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.
Dan SinykinJan 9, 2023