The Intimate Memorials of a Ladies Literary Club
These remembrances reveal a century of women’s friendships in one Midwestern literary club.
Why Does Music in Science Fiction Sound Like That?
Imagining the sound of other worlds has a long past—and persistent creative limits.
Inside a Four-Million-Word Diary of 1860s New York
George Templeton Strong chronicles Civil War–era New York with unmatched immediacy, capturing daily life and upheaval.
William Hodges and the Art of Empire
How a traveling landscape painter helped create a homogeneous vision of the British Empire.
Just Wilde About Hair
The evolution of Oscar Wilde’s hair offers insight into how he constructed and revised his public identity.
10 Prose Poems That Think Outside the Line
Poems that blur the boundaries of form, by Claudia Rankine, Louise Glück, Victoria Chang, Arthur Rimbaud, Layli Long Soldier, Mary Ruefle, and more.
Malibu in Matchbooks: Clues to a Lost Coast
A collection of matchbooks from Southern California maps a vanished mid-century commercial corridor, long displaced by fire and time.
A Reader’s Guide to Poetry for National Poetry Month
Read poems, learn poetic forms, and discover writers in this National Poetry Month roundup.
The Red Chador’s Provocative Public Performance
Anida Yoeu Ali’s Red Chador challenges stereotypes of Muslim identity through performance art in highly visible public settings.
Gender Play in Nineteenth-Century Theater
In the 1800s, women playing tragic leads captivated crowds while critics struggled to reconcile talent with gender norms.