Memoir & Essay
"The older one grows, the more one likes indecency." — Virginia Woolf
Storyteller Strategist: A Conversation with Susan Orlean
Yvonne Conza speaks to Susan Orlean about animalish curiosities, the writing process, and the meaning of memoirs.
Inspired, Polyvocal, Joyful: On Warren Ellis’s “Nina Simone’s Gum”
Kathleen Rooney explores Warren Ellis’s “Nina Simone’s Gum.”
The Lesson of a Long Illness: On Ross Douthat’s “The Deep Places”
The conservative columnist’s memoir chronicles his struggles with Lyme disease.
Orwell’s Many-Thorned Bomb Shelter: A Conversation with Rebecca Solnit
Andrea Hoag interviews Rebecca Solnit about her new book on George Orwell, “Orwell’s Roses.”
Breaking Through: Julietta Singh’s “The Breaks” and Public Scholarship
Christopher Schaberg cracks open “The Breaks: An Essay” by Julietta Singh.
The Sorrow of Homecoming: On Mariana Oliver’s “Migratory Birds”
The author’s debut essay collection offers an assortment of meditative vignettes on displacement and belonging.
To Love a Language: On Jhumpa Lahiri’s Transformations
Jacqui Cornetta examines Jhumpa Lahiri’s journey to Italian and back again.
Ferkakta Wisdom: On Christopher Sorrentino’s “Now Beacon, Now Sea: A Son’s Memoir”
The guiding emotions of Sorrentino’s memoir of his father are bewilderment and hurt.
To Rouse and Repel: A Conversation with Maggie Nelson on the Rhetoric of Freedom
Meredith Maran interviews Maggie Nelson on her new book, “On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint.”
“A Very Strong Effect on the World”: A Conversation with Phillip Lopate
The noted essayist discusses his new anthology of essays, “The Golden Age of the American Essay: 1945–1970.”
“Gathered Fitfully from My Own Memory”: On Józef Czapski’s “Memories of Starobielsk”
A collection of essays on the Polish experience in World War II by Józef Czapski, translated by Alissa Valles.
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