The Origins of “Braiding Sweetgrass”
Robin Wall Kimmerer is an unlikely literary star. A botanist by training—a specialist in moss—she spent much of her career at the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Fo...
25 Aug 202327min
Tessa Hadley on What Decades of Failure Taught Her About Writing
The New Yorker first published a short story by Tessa Hadley in 2002. Titled “Lost and Found,” it described a friendship between two women who had been close since childhood. Hadley’s fiction is ofte...
22 Aug 202319min
Talking to Conservatives about Climate Change
Even in a summer of record-breaking heat and disasters, Republican Presidential candidates have ignored or mocked climate change. But some conservative legislators in Congress recognize that action is...
18 Aug 202331min
The Novelist Esmeralda Santiago on Learning to Write After a Stroke
The author Esmeralda Santiago has been writing about Puerto Rico and questions of immigration and identity since the early nineties. But, in 2008, she suffered a stroke that left her unable to deciphe...
15 Aug 202319min
Will the End of Affirmative Action Lead to the End of Legacy Admissions?
The practice of legacy admissions—preferential consideration of the children of alumni—has emerged as a national flash point since the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in June. Even some promin...
11 Aug 202330min
James McBride on His New Novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store”
James McBride’s new novel, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” centers on the discovery of a skeleton at the bottom of a well in a small town in Pennsylvania. What unfolds is the story of a young Blac...
8 Aug 202314min
Emily Nussbaum on the Culture Wars in Country Music
Last month, the country singer Jason Aldean released a music video for “Try That in a Small Town,” a song that initially received little attention. But the video cast the song’s lyrics in a new light....
4 Aug 202336min
A Trip to the Boundary Waters
Alex Kotlowitz is known as a chronicler of Chicago, and of lives marred by urban poverty and violence. His books set in the city include “An American Summer,” “There Are No Children Here,” and “Never ...
1 Aug 202317min
