Where Did All the Public Bathrooms Go?
Nineteenth-century Paris tackled public urination with ornate pissoirs. American reformers later turned toilets into a temperance cause.
Dear Reader: 10 Epistolary Poems by Contemporary Writers
Letters to lovers, siblings, artists, gods, and enemies by Diane Wakoski, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kazim Ali, June Jordan, and more.
Six Stories with First-Person Narrators
Distinctive voices and unforgettable perspectives, by Danielle Evans, Jamil Jan Kochai, Catherine Niu, Thomas Bernhard, Christine Schutt, and Michael Deagler.
10 Modern and Contemporary Poems by Queer Writers
Love poems, political declarations, lyrical confessions, and formal experiments by Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Ocean Vuong, Eileen Myles, and more.
Marriage and the Maiden Name
While many women trade surnames they had at birth for their husbands’, some hold on tightly to the former, a tradition famously established by Lucy Stone.
10 Contemporary Pastoral Poems
Poems that reflect and reinterpret the pastoral tradition, by Louise Glück, Alex Dimitrov, Rebecca Lehmann, Sam Sax, Natasha Trethewey, and more.
Speculative Fiction: Beyond a Novel’s Entertainment Value
The classroom is a place to equip students to better understand the world as it was and is. Speculative fiction can help.
Black Midwestern Studies: A Reading List
This primer on Black Midwestern Studies examines the factors shaping communities of color in America’s “flyover country,” long mistaken as a place of normative whiteness.
Refugee Lit Stakes Its Worthy Claim
Peter Sloane’s new study examines the narratives put forth by asylum seekers striving to reclaim their stories from mainstream media and political discourse.
Acacia: A Legacy of Artistry and Extraction
The thorny Acacia tree produces gum arabic, a versatile substance that’s been driving global trade for centuries.