Fiction

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

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  The Language of Torture

  Ingrid Betancourt has enough powerful descriptions of torture in "The Blue Line" to scare a reader straight.

  Michael Scott MooreMar 16, 2016

  • Fiction

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  Nobody’s Life Is a Joke: An Interview with John McManus

  John McManus sees the terrible humor in loss while lodging the admonition that nobody’s life is a joke.

  Jonathan StevensonMar 12, 2016

  • Fiction

• Rediscovering an Overlooked Woman Novelist

  Constance Fenimore Woolson is an oft-forgotten Victorian novelist who deserves to be known in her own right.

  Rebecca FosterMar 11, 2016

  • Fiction

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  The Puerility of “Purity”: How Franzen’s Latest Novel Rewrites an Edith Wharton Novel You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

  Edith Wharton's "The Children," published in 1928, has a lot in common with Jonathan Franzen's "Purity."

  Sheila LimingMar 11, 2016

  • Fiction

  • Literary Criticism

• Feminist Utopia, 17th-Century Style

  Danielle Dutton inhabits the life of Margaret Cavendish, the first woman to visit Britain’s Royal Society.

  Julie CrawfordMar 10, 2016

  • Fiction

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  We Need to Talk

  Kaitlyn Greenidge discusses the limits of language, family roles, and the tools we use to talk about the past.

  Ellie DukeMar 8, 2016

  • Fiction

• Ex-Soviets Adopt America

  Fishman returns to the question of generational transmission he so provocatively pried open in "A Replacement Life."

  Sasha SenderovichMar 8, 2016

  • Fiction

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  One Level Up: A Conversation with John Andrew Fredrick

  John McIntyre interviews John Andrew Fredrick.

  John McIntyreMar 4, 2016

  • Fiction

  • Music

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  Pure Fruit

  Katherine Taylor discusses her writing process, the autobiographical nature of writing, and the inspiration in California's Central Valley.

  Matthew SpecktorMar 3, 2016

  • Fiction

  • Memoir & Essay

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  Englishness in an Apocalypse

  "The Wake," Paul Kingsnorth's deliriously experimental imagining of the Norman Conquest as both natural and cultural apocalypse, is like Buccmaster's fens.

  Siân EchardMar 2, 2016

  • Fiction

• Patient Atavism

  Throughout Tessa Hadley's "The Past," there remains a seemingly impassable distance between the world of women and the world of men.

  Claire JarvisMar 1, 2016

  • Fiction

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  Not the Usual South Asian Muslim Suspects

  Tanwi Nandini Islam speaks on the inspiration for her award-winning novel "Bright Lines" and its richly drawn South Asian Muslim characters.

  Neelanjana BanerjeeFeb 26, 2016

  • Fiction