Linear parks have sprung from abandoned rail lines in cities nationwide. This article looks at the most well-known of these industrial transformations, New York’s High Line park, along with examples…
“What she has written instead is a kind of biography of Joan Didion, and an elusive one at that. Like her novels, it’s more a work of accumulation than of…
Dennis Ritchie created the C programming language (“the basis of nearly every programming and scripting tool”) and co-developed the Unix operating system. His death on October 8th fell in the…
In this Nation Conversations audio interview, reporter Laurie Penny takes a closer look at how digital resistance groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec have enabled protests from the Arab Spring…
“It’s even possible that there’s something retrospective in the nature of writing itself. Probably every writer’s first piece of writing, if it were possible to excavate such a thing, would…
This Salon piece offers a compelling argument for why teens should read adult fiction and reminds us that exposure to “mature” themes in adolescence is not only survivable, but also…
Helen DeWitt conversed with The Awl about her new novel Lighting Rods. Elaborating on influences and stylistic devices, DeWitt opens up about fantasies, detail-orientation, and 18th century satirists. “But as…
Catch-22 turns 50 this year. NPR explores how and why the the novel’s central paradox still resonates with readers—particularly with “a new crop of young people distrustful of their elders.…
It looks like the protesters will not be allowed to bring their gear and tents back to Zuccotti Park after the planned clean-up tomorrow. The Pew Research Center finds that…
At the Muni Diaries Reunion Show, our own managing editor Isaac Fitzgerald told a story “about heroics on the D.C. Metro, and why wearing khaki pants doesn’t necessarily make you…
In conversation with Bomblog, Richard Siken talks about activating truth, naming, and skin. The poet and painter reflects on how the concerns of his 2005 collection, Crush, vary from those…
“The stimulus failed.” “The deficit is our biggest problem right now.” “Lower taxes are the best way to grow the economy.” “Regulatory uncertainty is clogging the economy.” “If you unshackle…