The Latest

Class & Inequality

Draining the Swamp

Mar-a-Lago is the apotheosis of the Florida Dream in which wealthy interests degrade the environment and hollow out prospects for the poor. But as Hurricane Irma shows, this dream was never sustainable.

Arts in Society

This Is Uncorrected Proof

Morgan Parker's intimate poems complicate the public discourse on black women.

Arts in Society

Three Poems

In a shop near a church
            in the center of the city

I blinded myself.

            I held a penlight
to my left eye.

Arts in Society

Fashion Week: Central Occupied Territory

So the thing about the Death Squads is that their outfits are super cute.

Politics

The Putin Problem

Western leaders think of Putin as an aberration. They are wrong.

Arts in Society

John Ashbery: Staying, in Motion

Remembering John Ashbery.

Arts in Society

In Memoriam: John Ashbery

We have lost a poet of exceptional sensitivity, sophistication​,​ and grace.

Politics

Searching for Mao in Xi Jinping’s China

Forty-one years after Mao's death, is there still room for his politics in a rapidly changing China?

Arts in Society

2017 Poetry Contest Winner: Mia Kang

A whole body becomes no body.
A nobody becomes a body of earth.

I was a ruled body
with lines wide enough to write between.

Arts in Society

WE DO NOT HAVE ANY OPENINGS AT THIS TIME

Marriage. A bruise tried to cross me off, but only met me halfway. All bodies
A workshop of what isn’t anymore there. There’s loss & there’s talking

Arts in Society

Ode to the Corpse Flower

In the language of flowers // I am the one who says // fuck you
I won’t be anyone’s nosegay // this Mary is her own // talking bouquet

Arts in Society

Announcing the 2017 Winner of Boston Review’s Annual Poetry Contest

Congratulations to Mia Kang, Amy Woolard, and Benjamin Garcia.

Arts in Society

Frontier

Mom made us matching guidebooks to Alaska, 
    copied, bound in a Kinkos 
        in the Valley on a school day.

Science

The Global Calculus of Climate Disaster

Global capitalism is no longer simply characterized by uneven development, it is characterized by uneven disaster.

Politics

Losing and Gaining Public Goods

Resources that are essential to enabling human success and well-being must be made public and universal.

Arts in Society

Call for Submissions: What Nature

A special call for submissions for What Nature, a collection of poems and short prose that confronts the problem of ecopoetics.

Class & Inequality

A Brown v. Board for Higher Ed

When college is a prerequisite for getting a job that pays better than minimum wage, we cannot stop until it is free and accessible to all.

Class & Inequality

It’s The Gap, Stupid

Three books draw a disturbing picture of America as a system of compounding inequality driven by a hereditary meritocracy of professional elites.

Class & Inequality

A New Social Contract for Work

This Labor Day, it is not enough to speak out against Trump's many injustices. We must also begin laying the foundations for working together in the post-Trump era, whenever that arrives.

Arts in Society

Two Poems

No man was ever buried by the desert.
It takes years to cover a dead camel.

Men rest on top like a crust, bones
in their biplanes, a red and white stripe

Class & Inequality

When Politics Drives Scholarship

Nancy MacLean’s new book has set off a heated debate. But strong claims require strong evidence, and mistakes could mislead liberals and the left.

Politics

Inside Joe Arpaio’s Tent City

Exclusive 1995 photos from inside the cruel Tent City run by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was recently pardoned by Trump.

Arts in Society

All Rights Reserved

Every word is Trademarked™, Restricted® or Copyrighted©. Why was this something to celebrate?

Arts in Society

Self-Defense

Four car-jackings in three weeks in my suburb;
god sends helicopters and I fall asleep with heat-visions,
nestled in the hum of their rotors; I sleep quite well

Get our newsletter

Vital reading on politics, ideas, and culture to your inbox


A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975

Registered 501(c)(3) organization