Infernal Return: Lee Smith on the Dante revival

Coffee Table: Barry Schwabsky and Andy Grundberg on art and photo monographs

Paper Trail: Mark Dery on the burden of reams

Interview: Jim Crace talks with David L. Ulin

Fiction Forecast by Kera Bolonik

First Novels by Darcy Cosper

Meta Morph: Brian Evenson on John Barth's literary legacy

Benjamin Anastas on The Devil's Larder, by Jim Crace

Robert Polito on The Gourmet Club, by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

Vitaly Chernetsky on 4 by Pelevin, by Victor Pelevin

Adam Kirsch on Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald

Lynn Crawford on The Complexities of Intimacy, by Mary Caponegro

Joshua Clover on To Repel Ghosts, by Kevin Young

Sally Eckhoff on Everything You Need, by A.L. Kennedy

Alexandra Ringe on The Subject Steve, by Sam Lipsyte

John Yau on Dark Back of Time, by Javier Marías

Lucinda Rosenfeld on Eva Moves the Furniture, by Margot Livesey

Ammiel Alcalay on Charles Olson's Selected Letters, edited by Ralph Maud

Gary Indiana on Bernhard's life and work

Chronology: a biography in brief

Testimonials: Rick Moody, Sven Birkerts, Geoff Dyer, Lynne Tillman, and others pay tribute to Bernhard

A Reader's Guide: Bernhard's novels at a glance, by Thomas D'Adamo

Excerpts from the novels

William Monahan on The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Robert Burton, introduction by William H. Gass

Luc Sante on Where Dead Voices Gather, by Nick Tosches

Harry Cooper on Philip Guston's "Poor Richard," by Debra Bricker Balken

Damon Krukowski on Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology, edited by Mary Ann Caws

Dani Shapiro on The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative, by Vivian Gornick

Lisa Levy on Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, by Nancy Milford

Minna Proctor on Where the Stress Falls: Essays, by Susan Sontag

David Grubbs on The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography, by A.J.A. Symons, introduction by A.S. Byatt