Can Fiction Really Spark Suicide?
The Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why is so powerful—and so controversial—it's sparked a national debate about teenage suicide.
The Literary Life of Jean Stein
Among her other literary accomplishments, Jean Stein edited Grand Street for 14 years. Here are two of her interviews for the magazine.
Mexican-Americans Have Always Battled Movie Stereotypes
Stereotyping and discrimination in Hollywood has elicited different responses from Mexican-Americans and Mexicans in Mexico.
Women Were Pirates, Too
Maybe you've never heard of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, but they were real-life women pirates who cross-dressed to get on ships.
5 (Free!) Works of Flash Fiction
Flash fiction by Grace Paley, Helen Phillips, Clemens Setz, Vanessa Gebbie, and Josefine Klougart, available for free PDF download.
Old English Has a Serious Image Problem
Although studying the language known as “Anglo-Saxon” helped women advance in the academy, the subject is fraught with racist associations.
Friend or Faux? The Linguistic Trickery of False Friends
"False friends" appear or sound like words in their own language, but have different meanings in others. They give us insight into how language changes.
Why William Randolph Hearst Hated Citizen Kane
Most Americans know about William Randolph Hearst through his fictional alter-ego, the protagonist of the film Citizen Kane. Was it an accurate portrait?
Remembering the LA Uprisings Through Theater
Just one year after the Rodney King verdict and subsequent LA riots, Anna Deveare Smith opened her one-woman show “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992."
Elizabeth Strout
How Elizabeth Strout went from writing in car during her baby's naptime to becoming the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author she is today.