Careful, the Doors Are Closing
Last month's suicide attacks in Moscow shocked anyone who studied Dzhanet Abdullayeva's photo. But it wasn't her baby face or cold blood that impressed our writer. It was her choice of metro stations.
Profiles
A collection of 211 issues
A Distribution of Chairs
As India considers saving seats for women in the government’s upper tier, a tour of the country’s rural east shows how quotas have turned women into local politicians.
Meeting Joe Franklin
Joe Franklin is a New York institution, having interviewed untold celebrities and been (jokingly) accused of rape by Sarah Silverman.
Out of the Brainland and Into the Heartland
Thomas Jefferson’s heart’s work was to carve out a little Eden on a small mountaintop. Visiting Monticello again and again and again.
Dead of State
Where politics and democracy fail, nature eventually wins. A number of tyrants and world leaders are currently sick. Ranking the illest.
Michael Ondaatje
Our man in Boston talks to Michael Ondaatje about why he writes novels, how he measures satisfaction, and when fiction can succeed by operating like poetry.
By Any Other Name
Writer seeks pen name: something simple, nothing dippy, and preferably one that avoids implying a lawyer who savors puns.
Tobias Wolff
Our man in Boston talks to Tobias Wolff about the art of revision, how writing programs are good for training skilled readers, and why Robert Olen Butler still signs stock.
Beer and Loathing
For agents and publishers, the Frankfurt Book Fair is publishing's biggest event: part conclave, mostly marathon, and all business. It is absolutely no place for an aspiring author, as we discover.
Same as It Ever Was
Following up with targets of the infamous Rock Critical List, an anonymous, highly personal screed that sparked a firestorm.