Nonfiction

"There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them." — Federico García Lorca

• Locked Up in America: The Essay in the Age of Mass Incarceration

  "Fourth City" intervenes in an ongoing public debate about prisons by providing space for prisoners themselves to enter the discussion.

  Ben MerrimanOct 8, 2015

  • Memoir & Essay

  • Nonfiction

• Purposeful Motion

  Things I did not do while reading Sven Birkerts's "Changing the Subject."

  Bill CapossereOct 4, 2015

  • Nonfiction

• The Spyglass and the Astronomer: Seeing Galileo in Perspective

  Seeing Galileo from his own perspective is rather like looking just once through his telescope.

  Paula FindlenOct 3, 2015

  • Nonfiction

  • Science & Technology

• Mapping the Family Possible

  If same-sex marriage is the first step on this journey, where are we headed, and how do we go the rest of the way?

  Hugh RyanSep 26, 2015

  • Nonfiction

• 

  A Memoriam for the Indian Soldier

  "Farthest Field" is, in some way, a memoriam for the Indian soldiers who died in this war.

  Neha SharmaSep 22, 2015

  • Around the World

  • Nonfiction

• 

  The Sahel Sang Back

  "Walking with Abel" is a patchwork of culture-colliding exchanges — a careful rendering of one of the world’s last remaining migratory peoples.

  Adam McCauleySep 22, 2015

  • Around the World

  • Nonfiction

• How to Endure

  "The Dead Ladies Project" is sometimes rollicking, sometimes panicked, but always insightful and moving.

  J. C. HallmanSep 21, 2015

  • Nonfiction

• 

  Now Entering the Independent Nation of Heyday, California

  By reading "The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin," I've been given a much better, deeper understanding of who Margolin is, what Heyday publishes, and what it doesn't.

  Jason S. SextonSep 19, 2015

  • Nonfiction

• Coorie Doon: Dirda’s Year of Reading

  Michael Dirda writes about reading, but do we want to read it?

  Susan McCallum-SmithAug 22, 2015

  • Literary Criticism

  • Memoir & Essay

  • Nonfiction

• 

  The Odd Couple: On Political Dissent and the Remarkable Similarities Between Mark Twain and Yu Hua

  Twain's and Yu's oeuvres are filled with works that demonstrate their keen eye for the small dramas of everyday life and keen ear for linguistic hypocrisy.

  Jeffrey WasserstromAug 21, 2015

  • Fiction

  • Nonfiction

• The Axis Around Which Everything Turns

  Robert Saviano follows trails of money, power, and bodies, investigating the contemporary influence of cocaine.

  Zach PontzAug 7, 2015

  • Nonfiction

• 

  Landmark Princess

  Denmark's most famous landmark, a 100-year-old statue of a bronze mermaid, has a sordid history of decapitation, tourist-baiting, cult reverence, and protest art.

  Chantel TattoliAug 3, 2015

  • Cultural Studies

  • Nonfiction