Criticism
A World of Electric Children
Science fiction author Ted Chiang wrote the story for the Academy Award–winning film Arrival. Now his new collection of short stories gives us further glimpses of possible futures.
The False Promise of Enlightenment
Three new books paint a chilling portrait of darkness in Wall Street, the law, and technology. But the apocalyptic metaphors obscure the real problem, hindering how we fight back.
Playing with Fire
In their new book, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, and Henry Paulson describe fighting the fire of the 2008 financial crisis. But while they did rebuild the burnt towers of Wall Street, they left Main Street to dig out from the rubble.
Succeeding While Black
Michelle Obama’s memoir reduces racial inequality to a matter of psychological impairment.
Dystopia Is Everywhere
Hye-young Pyun’s surreal, violent novels reject stereotypes about Korean women’s writing, taking up global themes of environmental collapse and the loneliness of city life.
The Limits of Cosmopolitanism
With the dire turn in global politics, Donna Stonecipher’s poetry of globalization and displacement possesses an unprecedented urgency.
Was Architecture Better Under Socialism?
Yugoslavia produced a thrilling variety of buildings, frequently departing from the prefabricated monotony of the Eastern Bloc.
Don’t Overthink It
A new book wants us to navigate life’s crossroads with the precision of a military exercise. But personal decisions are more difficult than even the most consequential political decisions.
What Happened to Kanye West?
Kanye represents what happens when the liberties of artistic genius are confused for political insight.
Chronicling the Last Days of Old New York
In his acerbic and often hilarious Village Voice column, Gary Indiana documented a cultural world being lost to AIDS and corporate greed.
Monsters vs. Empire
Trump’s Space Force is a bad reboot of the old imperial fantasy of control from above.
The Digital is Political
The political ideas we have held for centuries are ill-equipped to respond to today's challenges.
Rewriting Poland
Novelist Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Booker International Prize, presents a multicultural Poland, to the ire of the Polish far-right.
Sorry, Not Sorry
Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You roasts racial capitalism and issues an unapologetic call for revolution.
Summer Poetry Reading
Reviews of new poetry from Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Kimberly Burwick, Caroline Crumpacker, Kathy Fagan, Jennifer Firestone, and Virginia Konchan
Hurtling Headlong into ‘Cruel Futures’
Carmen Giménez Smith’s fifth collection of poetry presents a nimble mind navigating a ruptured world.
The Order Is Bullet
One of the most important contemporary poets of Francophone Africa, Josué Guébo writes in language that is raucous, difficult, and outrageously beautiful.
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