At Gawker, Tarpley Hitt writes about the decision by New York magazine and Elizabeth Weil to anonymize her cover feature “Canceled at 17” and not to disclose that one of Weil’s children attended the school the story is about. Hitt argues that the latter choice distorted the story; had Weil’s connection to the school been revealed, “It would have also revealed the piece for what it was: a personal, and by extension, particular, story—not, as it purported to be, a sweeping parable of the times. That tension presents an inherent flaw in the assignment. In omitting the relationship, New York

On social media, tributes are pouring in for activist, scholar, and historian Mike Davis, who is terminally ill. Davis, the author of more than a dozen books, was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. In 2021, Micah Uetricht wrote for The Nation that “Over the course of a remarkable career, [Davis] has been resolutely clear-eyed about the nightmares we face as a society and a planet, mostly bearish on the prospects for reversing those nightmares, and always prescient.” For Bookforum, Sasha Frere-Jones reviewed Davis’s latest book (cowritten with Jon Weiner) Set

Graywolf publisher Fiona McCrae is retiring after twenty-eight years at the helm of the venerable independent press. Ethan Nosowsky, an editor at Graywolf, writes: “There are many wonderful publishers who are not terrific managers; there are many terrific managers who are not inspiring publishers. There are perhaps some inspiring publishers who are also somehow terrific managers but there is no way they are also brilliant fundraisers. Fiona is so good at all of these things. I have always admired the way that she is extremely ambitious for Graywolf and has very high expectations of herself and

For The Guardian, Moira Donegan discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and emphasizes that “the real story is the millions of women, and others, who now know that they are less free than men are—less free in the functioning of their own bodies, less free in the paths of their own lives, less free in the formation of their own families.”

A recording of last week’s event on the state of reproductive rights in the US with Lux magazine, Verso Books, and Haymarket Books is available on YouTube now. Speakers Laurie Bertram Roberts, Monica Raye Simpson, Rockie Gonzalez, and

On the Death Panel podcast, Jules Gill-Peterson and Charlie Markbreiter discuss a recent New York Times Magazine cover story about gender therapy and medical transition. And at the New Inquiry, Gill-Peterson and Bea Adler-Bolton talk about anti-trans policies, with Gill-Peterson observing, “In the face of such dire circumstances, it’s stunning that some of the most visible criticisms of these laws have reduced them to the realm of identity politics, as if the difference between pro- and anti- trans is whether or not you rhetorically bless trans people.” 

In her Substack, Jessica Valenti argues

Science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler was born on this day in 1947. To celebrate, London’s NTS Radio is broadcasting a full day of programming in her honor. And at Public Books, Sasha Ann Panaram offers an appreciation of Butler’s work and introduces an essay by Sheila Liming and an interview with Lynell George. You can read more about Butler’s life and work in the Spring 2021 issue of Bookforum, in which Gabrielle Bellot reviewed a Library of America edition of her novels and short stories. 

Electric Literature has announced “Both/And,” a forthcoming series that will be devoted to publishing

For the New Yorker, Stephanie Burt writes about Imogen Binnie’s Nevada and the invention of the trans novel. First published in 2013, Nevada was just reissued by FSG. Burt notes that for  Binnie, “Authenticity, not uplift, is the point.” 

In the summer issue of the Paris Review, Lidija Haas conducts an “Art of Fiction” interview with Sigrid Nunez. They discuss Nunez’s linear process, writing about one’s parents, corresponding with readers about loss, and more. Of her recent novel The Friend, Nunez said: “There is some poet—it might have been Lowell—who said about his writing, ‘I want to break

In the new issue of The Drift, Alexandra Kleeman, Christian Lorentzen, Tope Folarin, Hannah Gold, and more weigh in on the state of contemporary literary fiction: “​​Which styles are dying out, and which are flourishing? What’s changed since 2020, or even 2015? Glibly… did the pandemic kill autofiction?”

BOMB magazine shares an archival interview with painter Duncan Hannah, who died on Saturday at the age of sixty-nine. In the 1982 interview, Simon Lane asked Hannah about his paintings of famous writers. Of James Joyce, the painter said: “People treat Joyce so seriously, and he was really a

Ruth Ozeki has won the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel The Book of Form and Emptiness. The Women’s Prize also hosts a podcast where you can listen to author interviews, get book recommendations, and more.  

The Drift is throwing an issue-release party tonight at the Public Hotel in New York City. 

For Vulture, Andrea Long Chu reviews Ottessa Moshfegh’s new novel, Lapvona, which is set in a medieval village. Chu writes of Moshfegh, who likes to revel in degradation and filth in her work, “These days, the leading coprophage of American letters is seeking the sacred. This is no

The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr interviews Joe Kahn, the new executive editor of the New York Times. Kahn doesn’t seem poised to make major changes at the paper, but shares former editor Dean Baquet’s belief that journalists should de-prioritize Twitter. 

In the new issue of The Drift, Jake Bitte writes about Naomi Klein’s 2014 book This Changes Everything, greenwashing, and speculates about the future of green capitalism: “The world economy will cross the canyon on the tightrope of profit—instead of a Green New Deal, we will get a green Art of the Deal.” Bittle urges the left not to wait

Tonight, join us as we host the first episode of our new video series, “Off the Page,” featuring Margo Jefferson and Blair McClendon live in conversation. The virtual event is free if you RSVP here. Reviewing Jefferson’s new memoir, Constructing a Nervous System, for the spring issue of Bookforum, McClendon notes that for this book, Jefferson tried a new conception of autobiography: “Rather than using her life’s narrative to structure the book, she organizes her becoming through her models. Who, she asks herself, were those people she secreted away? In whose eyes did she see herself reflected?”

Duncan Hannah—a deeply literary artist and the author of the memoir 20th-Century Boy—has died. 

Lisa Lucas of Pantheon has acquired the new novel by Justin Taylor. Reboot is about a former child actor who is “charged with kissing the appropriate rings to in order to reboot the cult TV teen soap that made him famous, only to be pulled into a national scandal where the show itself becomes a flashpoint for the culture wars.” 

Critic Laura Miller has won the Kukula Award for Excellence in Nonfiction Book Reviewing for her Slate essay about rereading Alice Sebold’s memoir Lucky. 

Jessica Hopper,