we definitely do need more generous readers with the courage of conviction in their own taste, who believe in books and are willing to stand up for those convictions, which he was, and did, in spades. Who know, as Gian did, that artistic integrity is

We spend plenty of time here on The Millions telling all of you what we’ve been reading, but we are also quite interested in hearing about what you’ve been reading. By looking at our Amazon stats, we can see what books Millions readers have been buyi

Morrison does not leap from one kind of story to something radically different. Her voice shines through from the beginning. Her books all bear the marks of her imagination, style, and insight. The post Taking Refuge in How: On Toni Morrison’s First

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Rivka Galchen, Kate Zambreno, Akwaeke Emezi, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Galchen, Zambreno, Emezi, and More appeared first on The Million

I believe I write so as to continue to exist, and also to perform disappearance, nonexistence. I write knowing I inevitably shame my family by doing so, by writing at all about an interior life. The post There Is a Freedom to Being Kept Outside: The

On the eve of its 1,600th birthday, Venice was once again experiencing a pandemic. Venice, the city that also who gave us the word quarantena, quarantine, for the 40 days sailors were required to spend in isolation to avoid spreading the plague. The

When you’re slogging through your day, imagining what else is to come, and you remember that the minute all else is done you can sink down into your book like warm water, and be absorbed while you’re absorbing, is priceless, as they say in capitalism

This June, we're tentatively removing our masks in public parks and curling up with new books from Kate Zambreno, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Lisa Taddeo, Kristen Arnett, Rivka Galchen, and Italo Calvino. The post June Preview: The Millions Most Anticipate

This week we're looking at new titles from Ashley C. Ford, Kristin Arnett, and Edward St. Aubyn. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Ford, Arnett, St. Aubyn, and More appeared first on The Millions.

It takes me 10 years to figure out what I think. I’ve just learned to resign myself to the fact that I’m never going to be dynamic like that. The post Katie Kitamura Is Incapable of a Hot Take appeared first on The Millions.

My editor, with her thorough diligence and incredible acuity, compiled the extensive editorial feedback: 5,500-plus comments via track changes and 13 pages of global comments. The post Beyond 20 Drafts appeared first on The Millions.

Those books were about psychologically damaged people trying to navigate a cruel, cutthroat world. And they were written by what seemed to me psychologically damaged writers. It felt like I’d found a home. The post Ten Essential Noir Novels appeared

This week, we're looking at new books from Richard Flanagan and Mieko Kawakami. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Flanagan, Kawakami, and More appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Alex McElroy, our own Nick Ripatrazone, Jim Shepard, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring McElroy, Ripatrazone, Shepard, and More appeared first o

It’s so important that we not romanticize new motherhood. It’s hard enough to be a new parent with without the added guilt that you aren’t doing it right, or the loneliness of thinking no one else has had these feelings. The post Goodnight Mom: The M

Some people think it's the worst film ever made; for others it's an eye-opening film that changes the way they think about development aid or stereotypes. The post Stop Filming Us: Interrogating and Inverting the Western Gaze appeared first on The Mi

I think this is why there is so much enthusiasm for mythological retellings: they let us escape to another world, but they ask questions that still matter to us today. The post Ten Essential Books Inspired by Greek Mythology appeared first on The Mil

Our list this month is consistent. Its top five are unchanged. Last month's list was consistent. Its top three were unchanged. My monthly dispatches about the Millions Top Ten are... well, you get the idea. The post The Millions Top Ten: April 2021 a

Here’s a quick look at books publishing this week from Brenda Peynado, Linda Rui Feng, and Jessica Anya Blau. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Peynado, Feng, Blau, and More appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s what you should read carefully, what you might be able to negotiate, and a few things that might be red flags. The post Poetry Book Contracts: What to Know Before You Sign appeared first on The Millions.

At some point, I got it into my head that I wanted to write a book as long as a Franzen novel, because I know he’s allowed to and the conventional wisdom said I wasn’t. The post Writing to Heal: The Millions Interviews Elissa Washuta appeared first o

This week we've got our eyes on new books from Jhumpa Lahiri and Elissa Washuta,  The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Lahiri, Washuta, and More appeared first on The Millions.

The Vixen makes an implicit argument for good writing, and even good editing, as a form of political defiance. The post Disinformation Nation: On Francine Prose appeared first on The Millions.

Sojourn into a world so foreign was the birthright of the first humans, and it still is today, if you choose it. The post Elegy of the Walker appeared first on The Millions.

Maybe the point is that we writers should appreciate writing for the very way it keeps us trying, keeps us dreaming. The post Writing, Still Writing appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Richard Wright, Michelle Zauner, our own Ed Simon, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Wright, Zauner, Simon, and More appeared first on The Mill

Lane's memoir, which won the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, explores the author's ancestral history in order to give her future child a family history. The post ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane appeared first on The

There was some tension at Columbia over my formalism. I was at one point told not to write that way. Because formal poetry is what lights up my synapses, gets me high, I could not accommodate that suggestion. The post Formal Poetry Is Not a Museum Pi

What faith teaches is that we're all exiles from that Zion that is eternity, to which we shall one day return. What Vaughan understands is that if we seek eternity, it is now. The post Henry Vaughan’s Eternal Alchemy appeared first on The Millions.

Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Haruki Murakami, Helen Oyeyemi, John Edgar Wideman, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Murakami, Oyeyemi, Wideman, and More appeared first on Th