And I asked him... Baby, baby, be easy, so easy, because your father is hard.  And I craved things… To fuck but not his daddy, and so I ate peanut butter-banana sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and vanilla ice cream inside of espresso cups

With my first book, Heavy, I wanted to capture Rock Springs, the Wyoming boomtown where I grew up, in all of its grit and glory. Not long after Heavy came out, however, I began to feel like I’d only scratched the surface of the place. The realization

One of my more heavily annotated books is Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck. Though the book is billed as a travelog, it’s clear that Steinbeck made a great deal of it up, and he certainly ignored the advice of John McPhee, writing in The New Yo

This is a slight one, though nice, I think. The plot summary can be delivered in the space of two sentences: Mr. Tennyson, an English teacher, is notorious for an affair he once had with one of his students, Sarah Spence, and is rumored to have had o

On the occasion of Norman Mailer's 100th birthday, the author's biographer considers his legacy. The post A Hundred Years of Norman Mailer appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from George S. Schuyler, Delia Cai, Bisi Adjapon, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help T

We wouldn’t dream of abandoning our vast biannual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here’s what we’re looking out for in February:

There was much to do after my father died last year, following a prolonged bout with blood cancer. Not just the funeral arrangements but the other logistical matters: ridding my parents’ house of medical supplies, sorting through financial documents.

"It’s like these characters are made of yarn and their histories are woven into the thread." The post How Rachel M. Harper Unravels Her Characters appeared first on The Millions.

I think, of all the William Trevor stories I’ve read over the last 16 months, “Being Stolen From” is in its way the most Trevor-y. More than any other story, this one distills the main Trevorian operating principles into one piece—maybe more than tha

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from Aleksandar Hemon, Priya Guns, Paul Harding, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help Th

If I were to stop writing, would I be worthy to take up space? The post Adventures in Not-Writing appeared first on The Millions.

A Horse at Night is Amina Cain’s first book of nonfiction, an essayistic rumination on the practice and philosophy of writing. The book mostly focuses on Cain’s own writing life—or, at least, the sort of writing life she would like to have. Throughou

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from De’Shawn Charles Winslow, Dan Kois, Colm Tóibín, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to he

Is this the first happy ending in The Collected William Trevor? Looking back through the table of contents, I think it is. Arguably, “Lovers of Their Time” has a happy ending of sorts, with Norman secure in his sense that he’d had one great love affa

Krow manages to write a novel that is both apocalyptic and optimistic. The post And When She Speaks: On ‘Fire Season’ appeared first on The Millions.

Hendrickson's new book, 'Life on Delay,' shows the thorny, complicated reality of stuttering. The post John Hendrickson Tells the Truth appeared first on The Millions.

Nick Ripatrazone spotlights the best poetry collections of Q1. The post Must-Read Poetry: Winter 2023 appeared first on The Millions.

In one of my favorite pages of The Keeper, Kelcey Ervick‘s graphic memoir about her time as a goalie in the early days of Title IX, Ervick is, at this point, no longer a teenage soccer player. Time has passed, and she’s now a wife and a mother trying

Counterfactuals are a tricky business in law and in literature. The post Moving Power: Huck Finn, James Madison, and the Currents of History appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Pico Iyer, Kashana Cauley, Janet Malcolm, and more—that are publishing this week. The Half Known Life by Pico Iyer Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Half Known Life: “Essayist

I must admit to feeling dispirited by the title of this story before reading it, but “The Teddy-Bears’ Picnic” is actually a pretty fun one—I ought to have known that with a title like that, Trevor would deliver something appropriately vicious. The s

Welcome to our biannual Great Book Preview! We’ve assembled the best books of 2023A (that is, the first half of 2023), including new work from Nicole Chung, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Claire Dederer, Brian Dillon, Samantha Irby, Heidi Julavits, Catherine La

Language itself is the source and the object of Saunders's humor. The post The Evolving Comedy of George Saunders appeared first on The Millions.

What a gift it is to share your life with another person, and part of that gift is bearing witness. The post How to Bear Witness appeared first on The Millions.

Bryan A. Garner is here to update us on changes in how people speak and write in real life The post English in the Real World appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from Deepti Kapoor, Tracey Rose Peyton, V. V. Ganeshananthan, and more—that are publishing this week. Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about Age of Vice

In 2022, we mourned the deaths of many literary giants who remained under-celebrated in their lifetimes. These are some of them. With his eye patch and no-bullshit demeanor, Andrew Vachss was a man on a mission. He was an author of hard-boiled fictio

Chloé Cooper Jones reflects on 2022 through the books she read. The post A Year in Reading: Chloé Cooper Jones appeared first on The Millions.

A Year in Reading: Hafizah Augustus Geter reflects on 2022 through the books she read. The post A Year in Reading: Hafizah Augustus Geter appeared first on The Millions.