Tag: short stories
The Greatest Feminist Novelist You May Never Have Heard Of
The American novelist Susan Taubes drowned herself off the coast of East Hampton in 1969 at the age of 41. She had suffered from severe depression for a long time, but many friends thought the proximate cause of her death was a savage New York Times review of Divorcing, the only one of her novels to be published in her lifetime. The review had come out just a few days earlier. The critic, Hugh Kenner, had dismissed the
David Means Reads Lorrie Moore
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David Means joins Deborah Treisman to discuss “Face Time,” by Lorrie Moore, which was published in The New Yorker in 2020. Means is the author of a novel and six story collections, including “Instructions for a Funeral” and “Two Nurses, Smoking,” which came out in 2022.
Jamie Quatro Reads “Yogurt Day”
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Jamie Quatro reads her story “Yogurt Days,” which appears in the August 7, 2023, issue of the magazine. Quatro is the author of the story collection “I Want to Show You More” and the novel “Fire Sermon.” A new novel, “Two-Step Devil,” will be published next year.
The Show That Knows the Secret to Serialized TV
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained.
Today’s special guest is Atlantic staff writer Yair Rosenberg. Yair writes about the intersection of politics, culture, and religion, and is the author of our Deep
Nine Funny Books That Will Actually Make You Laugh
The phrase serious literature comes with an unfortunate double meaning. When we call books serious, we mean they are satisfying, well written, and worthy of consideration. But we also use serious as an antonym for funny, which can mislead us into assuming that a good book shouldn’t make us laugh. That’s too bad, because humor is a bona fide literary effect, right up there with tragedy, suspense, and profundity—just as much a part of the author’s toolbox but a
The Literary Legacy of C. Michael Curtis
A few years ago, the novelist and short-story writer Lauren Groff reflected on what had launched one of the more sparkling literary careers of recent years:
When C. Michael Curtis pulled my short story “L. DeBard and Aliette” from the slush pile in 2005, I was in my first semester in graduate school at Madison. In the years since I’d graduated from college, I’d been a bartender and administrative assistant and had worked my brain and fingers raw, trying and
Nine Translated Books You Almost Didn’t Hear About
Haruki Murakami’s fifth book, Norwegian Wood, was a sensation in Japan when it was first released in 1987. Despite its success, it wasn’t widely available in English until 2000. The gap between its publication and its popular translation is surprising in hindsight, but few people outside the author’s home country had heard of him until the later English releases of some of his other works. Reportedly, American publishers initially assumed that Norwegian Wood wouldn’t appeal to a wide audience.
12 Unforgettable Descriptions of Food in Literature
In literature, references to eating tend to be either symbolic or utilitarian. Food can indicate status or milieu (think about all those references to Dorsia in American Psycho), or it can move the plot forward (Rabbit Angstrom’s peanut-brittle habit in John Updike’s final Rabbit book). Even in the hands of the greats, food scenes can seem less than central to a story, more filler or filigree than substance. There are exceptions, however—moments in which food unlocks a higher story
The Best Books of 2021 Explored Family, Grief, and Desire
Much of 2021 has been filled with a dull sense of déjà vu as the coronavirus pandemic has continued to shrink social worlds and batter morale. Many of the books our writers and editors were drawn to investigated failure, grief, apocalypse—resonant themes at a time of constant rupture and regression. Others helped jolt readers out of routines, and stretched the imagination. The works below span fiction, poetry, memoir, and reportage, but they share a keen sense of the world as