Posts by author
Michelle Vider
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Mary Somerville: Journalist, Scientist
Matthew Wills revisits the life and career of Mary Somerville, a 19th century scientist, translator, and a popular science journalist. Somerville also has a notable place in linguistic history: the word scientist was first used in a review of her…
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Lines between Genres
At Hazlitt, Tobias Carroll writes on the current state of science fiction and fantasy, with recent works in both genres borrowing from the other to expand the limits of their worlds.
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Romancing the Cure
Homer understood in the 8th century BCE what modernity has yet to accept—love can be an addiction, and when it is, we need substantial outside help. Angela Chen writes for Aeon on romantic love as addiction, and the taboos around…
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A Writer’s Labels
The problem, however, lies in the fact that, whenever these labels are internalized by those in positions of power, they flatten a writer’s experiences. They shrink someone to just a sliver of his or her identity. Brandon Tensley writes for…
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How Far We Have(n’t) Come
As part of a series on diversity in publishing at Brooklyn Magazine, Molly McArdle talks with professionals across the publishing world about the state of diversity in the publishing industry today.
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The Hipster Consumes
…I can eat hip, wear it, and hang out with people who do the same. I do like artisanal food and vintage clothes. But I’d trade their proliferation in a heartbeat for the chance to eliminate my high-five-figure student debt…
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Origins of the “Fantasy North”
E.R. Truitt writes for Aeon on the long history of the “Fantasy North,” the lands, people, and culture at the top of the world that have fascinated pop culture for centuries. Truitt also marks the points in history when the…
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Worldbuilding, Novelbuilding
I have an impression that I write novels and then I publish the structure of those novels. There are missing Legos in that castle. And I like that. You must open a space for the reader. For Vol. 1 Brooklyn,…
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The Eden of the Surveillance State
Participation in our own surveillance was the price of entry into heaven. In the Winter 2016 issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, Amanda Power writes on the history (real and mythological) of the Western surveillance state, whose roots can be found in…
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Erotica Illustrated
For Hyperallergic, Claire Voon tours the New York Public Library’s collection of historical erotica, ranging from 15th century illustrations of eroticized mythological scenes to risqué 19th century photographs kept safe by owners in the pages of their books.
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Phillis Wheatley, Poet
For Lenny Letter, Doreen St. Félix writes on the legacy of Phillis Wheatley, the first black poet to have her work published in America: In her second life, Wheatley’s poetry—and the imagined determination it took to create it, to appropriate…
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Celibacy, Masculinity, and the Clergy
Jennifer Thibodeaux discusses in an interview with Notches her recent work on the historical emergence of celibacy among clergy. In particular, Thibodeaux focuses on how the clergy created an image of masculinity and sexual desire that remains with us to…