In Defense of Sparta
The alt-right and other fanatics of the ancient civilization are distorting history. Sparta can teach us how to rethink liberal democracy.
Literature
Lila Savage’s Say Say Say Is a Breakthrough in Women’s Fiction
A debut novel explores self-care through the mind of a caregiver.
Learn the Right Lessons from Naomi Wolf’s Book Blunder
Expertise matters. But lane-policing is counterproductive.
Care in a Land of Closing Hospitals
The Russian writer Maxim Osipov was best known as a medical doctor, until he began to publish arresting, empathetic stories of sickness and treatment.
Gene Wolfe Was the Proust of Science Fiction
Out of the trauma of war, Wolfe found redemption in Catholicism and his voice in futuristic, philosophical novels.
A Series of Selves
How Virginia Woolf’s diaries chronicle the push and pull of her private and public lives.
Naipaul and the World
Criticized as cruel and self-centered, V.S. Naipaul insisted on confronting the hard realities of post-colonial life.
The Paradoxical Politics of Literary Criticism
How did literary scholarship take a leftward turn during the 1970s, when neoliberalism and austerity were ascendant?
What Happened to the Nobel Prize in Literature?
The prize has undergone a distinct change in recent years, opting for best-selling writers and rock stars.
Fairytales Punish the Curious
How Angela Carter escaped a puritanical childhood and stifling marriage, and reimagined sexuality.
The Big Short
Sarah Manguso's aphorisms feel powerful in our age of alternative facts.
Cash for Words: A Brief History of Writing for Money
Money taints everything, why not writing too?
Who Will Win the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Not Bob Dylan, that's for sure.
All Novels Aren’t Political Statements. But They’re Not Apolitical, Either.
What Lionel Shriver got right—and wrong—in her controversial speech about political correctness in literature.
Witness Tampering
Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich crafts myths, not histories.
The Evil Magician Casts a Spell
Donald Trump's eerie likeness to Thomas Mann's Mussolini parable.
Cynthia Ozick’s Critical Mass
For more than thirty years, Ozick has led the way in affirming the role and responsibility of the critic.
Does Literary Criticism Have a Grade Inflation Problem?
Lit Hub's new ratings site exposes the flaws in the wider culture.
How Literature Became Word Perfect
Before the word processor, perfect copy was the domain of the typist—not the literary genius.
Why Are There So Many Writers in Myanmar’s New Government?
President Htin Kyaw is hardly the only bookish official in the country.
