The New Republic
-
On Keeping a Bullet Journal
Several bullet journal gurus in that community have built significant online followings by posting photos of their hypnotically beautiful notebook spreads. “It’s pretty insane, I initially started posting photos of my journal on Instagram just to archive my process, and…
-
Endued with Vital Warmth
Over at The New Republic, Francine Prose writes about Frankenstein’s conception, as a bet in a drama-fueled writer’s group, as fueled by a young soon-to-be-mother’s anxiety, as a cleverly-plotted Gothic novel, as stories embedded in stories, as something altogether wonderful…
-
The Sacred and the Profane in Knausgaard
Is it possible to separate Knausgaard the author from Knausgaard the protagonist? At the New Republic, Tess Crain asks this question, taking a look at the series from a woman’s point of view. By her estimation, Volume 5, just out…
-
This Week in Indie Bookstores
Independent bookstores are thriving because many are adapting technology and learning how to better serve their local community. A stunning new bookstore has opened in eastern China with dazzling displays and whimsical architecture. Bookstores in Barcelona are adapting as Spain…
-
The Butterfly Effect
At The New Republic, Laura Marsh examines the interplay—or lack thereof—between Nabokov’s identities as a writer and a lepidopterist. In her investigative and detailed cataloguing of scientific and literary happenings, her only steadfast finding may be this: “There’s a special…
-
There Is No Such Thing as the Ugly Cry
Rachel Vorona Cote writes about the aesthetics of crying for The New Republic: To cry this way—vigorously, heartily, vulgarly—reveals vulnerability at the same time that it conveys physical might and mettle. Our bodies can speak for themselves, says the ugly…
-
Better Late
Inspiration is a fickle mistress—sometimes the Muse doesn’t show up for years. Louis Begley may have gotten a late start, but after beginning his first novel at age fifty-six, he hasn’t stopped writing. The author reflects on his career for…
-
Before Virginia Woolf, There Was Lola Ridge
At The New Republic, Terese Svoboda discusses “the forgotten feminism of Lola Ridge,” a radical poet who she says paved the way for feminist writers like Woolf with her 1919 speech “Women and Creative Will.”
-
Sarah Palin, the Transcendentalist
From Lincoln’s famous love of quoting Shakespeare to George Bush’s prodigious reading habits, American politics have always mingled with the literary pantheon. Now that Sarah Palin is back in the news for her endorsement of Donald Trump, Jeet Heer traces…
-
Beer and Books
Is the much loved bookseller Barnes & Noble turning into a nightclub? Not quite, but it is exploring the possibility of serving alcohol. The bookseller will be testing the sale of beer and wine at events in West Hartford before…
-
The Science of Sentimentality
Based on the available evidence, if you want to write one of the fifty most important novels in the next half-century, then by all means avoid sentimental language. But if you want to get published, sell books, be reviewed, win…
-
Odes to Lolita, the Sexuagenarian
It was like being marched through someone’s private idea of a perfect night, a night where I was the center but one that had curiously little to do with me at all—all of which is to say that in an…