John Berger, Death’s Secretary: A Conversation with Tom Overton

“The first letter I sent to him was about a print that he’d made, which was in the archive—a Chagall-inspired Virgin Mary standing on a donkey.”

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The New Yorker

Free quota

“Narrow Escape,” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Fiction by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in English for the first time: The police lieutenant appeared to be writing down exactly what Gleb was telling him, but relying upon completely different words.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn·Sep 27, 2026·14 min read

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Literary Hub

Got Writer’s Block? Go to the Theater!

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. I love art that seems like it came from outer space, that seems unrelated to anything else in the Zeitgeist, that makes me wonder how the artist ever came up

Amy Fusselman·Sep 25, 2026

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Literary Hub

Elizabeth Alexander on Finding Life in the Second Spring of Middle Age

If I could have been a dancer, a real dancer, beyond those years at St. Mark’s, I probably would have done it. But my gifts were not that lavish, and my considerable drive was directed toward more than just dance.

Elizabeth Alexander·Sep 25, 2026

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Public Books

The Treachery of Machine Realism

“The bombed elementary school in Iran appears to have become a target thanks to satellite imaging. In this case, what the image represented — and to who — was a matter of life and death.” The post The Treachery of Machine Realism appeared first on Public Books.

Morgan Barry·Sep 23, 2026

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The Paris Review

“Do You Think This Conversation Is Going Well?” and Other Pickup Lines

“The dating app has engineered what one might call an Enneagrammatical system of bookish star signs.”

Gemma Sieff·Sep 25, 2026

Hyperallergic

Arthur Jafa, King of Pop

His eclectic references and intuitive grasp of memes and virality set him apart as an artist taking assemblage and collage to new heights.

Stephanie Wambugu·Sep 25, 2026