Fairy tales and universal truths
Inspired by her own experiences with clinical depression and childhood grief, National Book Award finalist Amber McBride published We Are All So Good at Smiling, her second young adult novel […]
Read on
A Romance Salon: American Royalty Tracey Livesay’s steamy rom-com American Royalty is the first in a new series inspired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s real-life love story. Rapper Danielle […]
Say his name
As a youth, George Floyd dreamed of being a Supreme Court justice, a professional athlete, a rap star. Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa document those dreams and […]
Candy unlimited
Writing a book is an admirably impressive feat in its own right, but adapting an Old English epic—that happens to be quite violent—into a tale palatable for children? Yeah, Zach […]
A chorus of perspectives
The poems in John Keene’s latest collection, Punks: New & Selected Poems, span three decades, saturated with the desire, loss, and reflections of a Black gay man who lived through […]
Foraging for facts
One day, Psyche Williams-Forson’s daughter stopped letting her father pack Ghanaian food for her lunch. Her lunchbox smelled different than others, and she didn’t want to be made fun of. […]
Ann Beattie has More to Say
Known best for her short stories and novels, author Ann Beattie recently published More to Say: Essays & Appreciations, a collection of short nonfiction. The winner of numerous awards, Beattie […]
‘Words to subvert fear’
In Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions that Grew Me Up by Remica Bingham-Risher, the poet and essayist, reflects on her life and the influences of the Black poetry […]
Speculative memoir
In Sofia Samatar’s latest book, The White Mosque, the author and James Madison University professor weaves stories from her life together with histories of a group of Russian Mennonites who […]