Designed to mimic my Lorna Sage reading project of six women writers each year (here in 2024 and here in 2025), I chose Julia Alvarez, Alexis Wright, Annie Ernaux, Olga Tokarczuk, Gish Jen, and Leslie Marmon Silko for 2026. At first, I thought I would read a few books
For nearly as long as I’ve been a reader, I’ve sought out books about/by people who were preoccupied by ideas about how and where we belong. At first, I used to look for stories with characters who felt they didn’t belong in the same ways that I felt I
They say you never forget how to ride a bike, but you don’t necessarily remember how to ride it well. Since my first apartment at the age of 18, I have lived someplace with a set of stairs between my bike and the ground. And if my bike was
My experiment with reading-stories-in-sevens continues. This group of seven, pictured alongside, includes fiction by Liliana Colanzi, Anne Enright, Mary Gaitskill, Catherine Lacey, Weike Wang, and Paul Yoon (and whoever is in that issue with the adorbs cat cover). Are these writers you’ve read? I’ve heard of all but the
If Letty was invited to Christina Stead’s birthday party, preparations would be extensive. Clothing, accessories, the gift: everything would have to be “just so”. (Stead was born OTD in 1902; she died March 31, 1983.) When Letty needs to find an apartment in New York City, however, she makes
