Augustine Addiction memoir

The New Sameness of Leslie Jamison’s Addiction Memoir

Leslie Jamison's The Recovering is self-aware about being the same old story, recalling the redemption narratives of Rousseau and St. Augustine.
Clare Booth Luce

Clare Boothe Luce, the Conservative Politician Who Wrote an All-Female Play

Clare Boothe Luce was a socialite, an editor, a feminist playwright, a devout Roman Catholic, a Republican Congresswoman, an early LSD user, an ambassador, and, believe it or not, more.
Lucie Brock-Broido

10 Poems by Lucie Brock-Broido

Ten poems by the accomplished poet and teacher Lucie Brock-Broido.
Cropped Image Of Man And Woman Kissing

The Murky Linguistics of Consent

In many #MeToo stories, crucial signals, verbal and non-verbal cues, are sent but not received. Why is that?
Coetzee self portrait

J. M. Coetzee’s Newly Discovered Apartheid-Era Photographs

Much has been written about South African novelist J. M. Coetzee, but his newly found photographs offer a news lens through which to consider his writing.
Australian kids

Small Poppy Syndrome: Why are Australians so Obsessed With Nicknaming Things?

What's behind the Australian habit of nicknaming and abbreviating everything? Nicknames may just reveal how Australians see themselves and relate to each other.
Black Poets

10 Poems by African-American Poets

Poems by African-American poets, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Kwame Dawes, Rita Dove, Langston Hughes, Tyehimba Jess, Kevin Young, and more.
Elise Hooper The Other Alcott

Discovering the Real Little Women: Researching The Other Alcott

Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" is a cultural touchstone. But what about the women behind the "Women," Alcott's real-life sisters on whom she based her characters? An interview with novelist Elise Hooper considers the life of "The Other Alcott."
Robinson Crusoe

The Real-Life Robinson Crusoe (Maybe)

Marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, rescued after four years on a remote island, is usually taken as the model of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, but is he really?
Ursula Le Guin

RIP Ursula K. Le Guin

"Isn't the 'subjection of women' in science fiction merely a symptom of a whole which is authoritarian, power-worshipping, and intensely parochial?"