Fiction

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain

Mexico’s Enduring Contrasts: An Interview with Nicholas Mainieri
Andrea Penman-Lomeli interviews New Orleans-based author Nicholas Mainieri about his novel “The Infinite,” which is set along the US-Mexico border.
Andrea Penman-LomeliDec 10, 2016
- Fiction
Of Truth and Schmaltziness: Michael Chabon’s “Moonglow”
Menachem ponders the Chabonian mode of “Moonglow” by Michael Chabon.
Menachem KaiserDec 8, 2016
- Fiction
A Surreal Argentine Western in César Aira’s “Ema the Captive”
César Aira's "Ema the Captive" is a surreal Western in the spirit of Cormac McCarthy’s "Blood Meridian" that causes you to lose your sense of proportion.
Nathan Scott McNamaraDec 5, 2016
- Fiction
Idra Novey, Hannah Sanghee Park, Gregory Pardlo, and Mark Richard Talk to Olivia Clare About Multiple Genres
What does it mean to move among multiple genres as a writer?
Olivia ClareDec 4, 2016
All That Modernism Is: Reading David Szalay
Booker-shortlisted David Szalay plays the modernist game remarkably well.
John Dixon MirisolaDec 1, 2016
- Fiction
Bae Suah’s Narrative Collapse
The recently translated “A Greater Music” by Bae Suah is a dreamy time-warp of a novel that complicates our relationship with reality.
John W. W. ZeiserNov 30, 2016
- Fiction
Life (Narrative) in the End Times
Time and narrative, once again, turn out to have histories.
Tanya AgathocleousNov 29, 2016
- Fiction
- Memoir & Essay
How It Happens Here: Race and American Anti-Fascist Literature
Brooks E. Hefner on "The Black Stockings," William Thomas Smith's 1937 serial aimed at working- and middle-class African-American readers.
Brooks E. HefnerNov 26, 2016
- Fiction
Michael Chabon, Playing Himself
Michael Chabon on the blurring between fact and fiction in his newest novel, “Moonglow.”
Sanders I. BernsteinNov 25, 2016
- Fiction
A Brilliant Mind’s Pauses: The Fiction of Russia’s Greatest Poet
Bob Blaisdell praises the prose of Russia’s greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin.
Bob BlaisdellNov 22, 2016
- Around the World
- Fiction
Pure Literature: On Herta Müller and Svetlana Alexievich
James Thomas Snyder considers the work of two Nobel laureates from Central and Eastern Europe, Herta Müller and Svetlana Alexievich.
James Thomas SnyderNov 22, 2016
Third-Rail Erotica
Laura Frost on Anaïs Nin's recently published "Auletris."
Laura FrostNov 20, 2016
- Fiction