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#ben-lerner
fromThe New Yorker
6 days ago
Writing

The Ample Rewards of Ben Lerner's Slender New Novel

An interview with Ben Lerner reveals complexities of memory and influence in art and literature.
fromDefector
2 days ago
Books

The Gentle Parenting Of Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' | Defector

Ben Lerner's novels explore themes of youth, sexuality, and the complexities of adulthood through autofictional narratives.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
10 hours ago

He Wrote a Book About Interviewing. Here's His Interview.

Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' explores memory, language, and technology through the lens of a writer's relationship with his mentor.
Writing
fromVulture
2 days ago

Ben Lerner's Big Feelings

Ben Lerner's new book, Transcription, explores the complexities of authorial voice and the nature of interviews through a unique narrative structure.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
6 days ago

The Ample Rewards of Ben Lerner's Slender New Novel

An interview with Ben Lerner reveals complexities of memory and influence in art and literature.
Books
fromDefector
2 days ago

The Gentle Parenting Of Ben Lerner's 'Transcription' | Defector

Ben Lerner's novels explore themes of youth, sexuality, and the complexities of adulthood through autofictional narratives.
fromThe New Yorker
10 hours ago

Catherine Lacey Reads "Rate Your Happiness"

Catherine Lacey reads her story 'Rate Your Happiness,' from the April 13, 2026, issue of the magazine, highlighting her narrative style and thematic depth.
Books
#zendaya
Film
fromThe New Yorker
1 day ago

The Drama Surrounding "The Drama"

Fans gathered for the New York premiere of 'The Drama' starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, showcasing excitement and anticipation despite the cold weather.
Film
fromVulture
5 days ago

Critics Aren't Sure Whether to Marry The Drama

Zendaya's performance in the controversial film is widely praised, while critics are divided on the film's originality and execution.
Music production
fromThe New Yorker
2 days ago

Is It Wrong to Write a Book With A.I.?

The Roland TR-808 revolutionized music production by allowing musicians to create unique sounds and patterns, leading to new genres and widespread influence.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
3 days ago

Required Reading

Calida Rawles' art explores the duality of water as both healing and destructive within the Black diaspora's history.
NYC music
fromGothamist
4 days ago

How 'American Psycho' inspired a new theater opening in Bushwick

A new cultural venue, The Empyrean Club, is set to open in Bushwick, inspired by the musical 'American Psycho'.
fromDefector
6 days ago

For Now, ABS Makes Good Theater | Defector

Under the ABS challenge system, a team begins each game with two challenges. If a player gets an umpire's call overturned, their team retains the challenge. In effect, this means a team has unlimited challenges until they get two wrong.
Boston Red Sox
#literature
fromThe Atlantic
2 days ago
Books

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
fromPortland Mercury
6 days ago
Writing

In Ling Ling Huang's Immaculate Conception, Friends Share Brains

Love can be deeply complicated by jealousy and competition, especially among women artists.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 days ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Writing
fromPortland Mercury
6 days ago

In Ling Ling Huang's Immaculate Conception, Friends Share Brains

Love can be deeply complicated by jealousy and competition, especially among women artists.
#romantic-comedy
fromVulture
2 days ago
Film

The Drama Is Too Cowardly to Commit to Its Provocative Premise

The film presents a dark romantic comedy featuring complex characters and a central premise that challenges audience expectations.
fromThe New Yorker
3 days ago
Film

"The Drama" Struggles to Justify Its Combustible Premise

Charlie and Emma navigate their relationship's challenges through humor and the concept of starting over.
Film
fromVulture
2 days ago

The Drama Is Too Cowardly to Commit to Its Provocative Premise

The film presents a dark romantic comedy featuring complex characters and a central premise that challenges audience expectations.
Film
fromThe New Yorker
3 days ago

"The Drama" Struggles to Justify Its Combustible Premise

Charlie and Emma navigate their relationship's challenges through humor and the concept of starting over.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Daunting, inspiring, comforting, terrifying: the writers who can make silence as eloquent as words

A vision lay before him: Fleet Street blanketed with snow, silent, empty, pure white, and, at the end of it, the huge and majestic form of Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a spellbinding moment: the great thoroughfare temporarily devoid of carts and carriages, the cathedral looming blurrily out of the still-falling snowflakes a real-life snow globe.
London
#art
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
5 days ago

Transcription by Ben Lerner review a stunning exploration of technology and storytelling

The novel explores themes of touch, familial inheritance, and the complexities of communication through a narrative involving a final interview with a mentor.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
5 days ago

Transcription by Ben Lerner review a stunning exploration of technology and storytelling

The novel explores themes of touch, familial inheritance, and the complexities of communication through a narrative involving a final interview with a mentor.
Media industry
fromArtforum
4 days ago

Dialogues and Dreams

Artforum evolved to foster international dialogue and promote substantive commentary in response to contemporary challenges in the arts ecosystem.
fromFast Company
1 day ago

A New York Times critic used AI to write a review, but good criticism can't be outsourced

Preston's reliance on A.I. and his use of unattributed work by another writer was deemed a clear violation of the Times's standards, leading to his dismissal.
Writing
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 day ago

Enough of this me me me': Blake Morrison on memoir in the age of oversharing

Memoirs have evolved to embrace candor and vulnerability, allowing anyone to share their personal stories of trauma and identity.
Film
fromVulture
2 days ago

The Twist in The Drama Is Not the Problem

The film features a controversial plot twist involving a character's past plan for a school shooting, sparking significant online speculation and backlash.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
6 days ago

A Drama of Two Masters

A documentary dramatizes the rivalry between British landscape painters Turner and Constable while exploring survival strategies in the age of AI.
Roam Research
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks ago

Letters from Our Readers

Clear-air turbulence over Southeast Asia caused dramatic altitude changes in both modern commercial flights and World War II transport planes, with historical flights experiencing far more severe drops than contemporary incidents.
fromwww.archdaily.com
2 weeks ago

Poetry Anthology of Light / P.M.A.Studio

This project involved the reconstruction of a dilapidated building located in Guangzhou's old town along Tongfu Xi Road, a historic street established in 1926. Once vibrant, this area has suffered from significant neglect over the years, with many buildings falling into disrepair, creating safety hazards that forced both residents and businesses to leave.
Renovation
Books
fromTime Out New York
1 day ago

This New York reading retreat is rethinking book clubs

Page Break offers a unique weekend retreat where strangers read a novel aloud together, fostering community and enhancing comprehension.
Women
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

The Feminist Visionary Who Lost the Plot

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's experience of discrimination at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention catalyzed her feminist activism, though her sense of intellectual superiority later contributed to bigoted views.
US Elections
fromThe Nation
3 weeks ago

George Packer's Liberal Imagination

The Short American Century, spanning 1945-2016, progressed through four distinct eras of confidence, skepticism, exuberance, and hubris before ending with Trump's 2016 election, which shattered liberal consensus about permanent American dominance.
Film
fromJezebel
4 days ago

'The Drama' Is Worth the Secrecy

Kristoffer Borgli's film explores dark human impulses through a pre-wedding gathering that reveals unsettling secrets among friends.
Writing
fromThe Nation
6 days ago

The Enigma of Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein's complex writing style and innovative use of language significantly influenced 20th-century literature, despite ongoing ambivalence from readers.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
4 days ago

The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades

Cameron Reed's science fiction explores cognitive estrangement, revealing alien worlds that reflect and challenge our own societal norms and moral dilemmas.
Arts
fromVulture
2 weeks ago

The Trouble With Fame, Both Lost and Found: Bughouse and Tru

Two contrasting artists, Truman Capote and Henry Darger, represent different approaches to fame and creativity, highlighting the complexities of self-identity.
Books
fromInsideHook
3 days ago

What to Read Right Now, According to Cool Men

Men are encouraged to read a variety of fiction, including classics, memoirs, and trending novels, especially as summer approaches.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 days ago

What we're reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in March

Contemporary fiction offers diverse themes, from friendship and business to the complexities of gay life and the struggles of digital nomads.
Books
fromEntrepreneur
5 days ago

The Secret to Actually Finishing That Passion Project? Treat It Like You Work in a Coal Mine, Says This Best-Selling Author.

Focus on ideas that can sustain long-term commitment rather than chasing every clever thought.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
3 weeks ago

Required Reading

Women's strikes, graffiti activism, and museum repatriation efforts represent diverse forms of contemporary protest and cultural reckoning across multiple global contexts.
fromConde Nast Traveler
6 days ago

9 Books Our Editors Couldn't Put Down This Season

New biographies and freshly issued retrospectives reexamine the lives and legacies of fashion's biggest names, from archetypical It girl Jane Birkin to the eternally ahead of his time Issey Miyake.
Books
Books
fromThe Atlantic
6 days ago

How Long Can You Live Your Ideals?

Pat Calhoun chooses parenthood over radicalism, paralleling Elsa Haddish's struggle between her militant past and raising her daughter safely.
Books
fromwww.newyorker.com
1 week ago

Cassandra Neyenesch Reads Enough for Now

Cassandra Neyenesch is a Brooklyn-based writer and curator with a debut novel titled A Little Bit Bad, set to be published in May.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

Raymond Chandler and the Case of the Split Infinitive

Raymond Chandler clashed with The Atlantic's copy editor Margaret Mutch over her correction of a split infinitive, arguing that deliberate rule-breaking in language creates authentic, living prose.
Relationships
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Mary Gaitskill on Damage and Defiance

Economic necessity, urban conditions, and contradictory cultural messages pushed many women into sex work, with choice constrained by coercion or gradual entrapment.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

Required Reading

Iranian heritage sites face irreversible damage from military conflict, while contemporary artists and curators reimagine cultural spaces through photography, exhibitions, and architectural interventions.
fromAdvocate.com
1 week ago

Heated Rivalry's success may reignite LGBTQ+ publishing

"I've heard some people say, 'Oh, I've watched the show,' or 'I've read the series, and that was the first queer romance I ever read,' says Stacy Boyd, executive editor at Harlequin Books, who works directly with Reid. 'So it's opening doors that haven't been opened.'"
Books
Writing
fromElite Traveler
3 weeks ago

Life Lessons With Author David Coggins

Living an interesting life requires embracing improbable efforts, starting from the ground floor in unfamiliar pursuits, prioritizing face-to-face conversation, and developing deep attachment to specific places.
fromThe Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music
2 weeks ago

"We thought our book would be on your cable spool table": Clark Coolidge on Rock Notes - The Wire

I think it probably started when I first made contact with Tom Clark. He was in England at graduate school and he asked me to be in a magazine he was starting. We somehow began talking about rock music and he subsequently sent me 45s by The Cream and Jimi Hendrix Experience, both groups being unknown to me.
Books
Europe politics
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Country That Made Its Own Canon

Sweden released a national culture canon, sparking controversy over national identity as immigration rises and the nationalist Sweden Democrats gain political influence.
LGBT
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Delicious Anticipation-and, Yes, Release-of "Heated Rivalry"

A contemporary romantic series about two closeted hockey players became an unexpected, major hit after premiering on Crave and HBO Max.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

Required Reading

Artists explore themes of Black resistance, marronage, and ecological history through natural materials and portraiture while navigating creative practice alongside full-time work.
LGBT
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Letters from Our Readers

Late-Victorian 'earnest' served as queer slang; Wilde used coded double entendres; Stephen Fry honors Wilde; Clyde Fitch was a once-prolific, now largely forgotten American playwright.
Books
fromHarvard Gazette
4 weeks ago

That's a book? - Harvard Gazette

Italo Calvino used tarot card decks as a computational system to generate interconnected narratives, predating modern AI by decades and demonstrating how structured systems can create complex literary works.
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Dilara, the protagonist of this début novel, is consumed by the absence of a stable home in her life. She and her family flee Turkey, where she is from, after a failed coup in 2016. When they end up in Italy, something inexplicable happens: Dilara's bathroom transforms into a cell in an infamous prison on the outskirts of Istanbul.
Books
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

Literature Has a Stay-at-Home-Dad Problem

Stay-at-home fathers are consistently portrayed as incompetent buffoons in literature, rarely depicted as skilled, engaged parents despite their growing real-world presence.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

The Rigor and Love of a Great Editor

Ann Godoff exemplified editorial excellence through complete self-effacement, prioritizing authors' success over personal recognition while building Penguin Press into a prestigious publishing powerhouse.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

Required Reading

Historic and contemporary cultural scenes reveal shifting norms in love, gender, Black entrepreneurship, and visual arts, from coded letters to early Black-owned bookstores.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

Literary Theory

Words carry multiple meanings; 'swallow' embodies both bird and ingestion, showing language's power to alter perception and emotional states.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
2 months ago

Required Reading

Global anti-occupation protests followed a US attack on Venezuela; the Guerrilla Girls exemplify sustained, anonymous, intersectional art-activism while dictionaries face internet-era uncertainty.
Writing
fromOpen Culture
1 month ago

Jack Kerouac Lists 9 Essentials for Writing Spontaneous Prose

Writing should be a rapid, breath-driven, associative outpouring that privileges rhythm, immediacy, and improvisation over revision and strict grammatical correctness.
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

Art Movements: Another Artforum Editor-in-Chief Is Out

I take no pleasure in saying "I told you so." Really, I don't. But I was hardly shocked by this week's news that Tina Rivers Ryan, who was named editor-in-chief of Artforum in 2024 after the dumpster fire that was the magazine's handling of an open letter in support of Gaza, was stepping down (Daniel Wenger and Rachel Wetzler will step in as co-editors, scrapping the editor-in-chief title altogether).
Arts
Books
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Mary Gaitskill Reads "Something Familiar"

Mary Gaitskill performs "Something Familiar" from the March 2, 2026 issue and has published eight fiction books, including Veronica and the essay collection Oppositions.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Writer's Secret Weapon

Swimming and physical exertion enhance creative thinking by muffling sensory input, boosting neurotransmitters, and enabling deeper, more original idea generation.
Writing
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Light Secrets," by Joseph O'Neill

Hidden rumors and secrets complicate a lunch between friends, revealing humor, vulnerability, and a belief that everyone has concealed darkness and hidden goodness.
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Why Shouldn't We Let Demons Do Homework?

A crack of thunder, a flash of light, and a sulfurous mist flooded my apartment. Marax, President of Hell, stood before me. Marax entered my summoning circle, eyes burning with unholy fire, and I gave him the stack of homework to flip through while I brushed my teeth. Marax marked up the papers and fleshed out my bullet points into thoughtful feedback before I even got to my molars. Then-three hours of my life, saved!-I banished him back to Hell.
Writing
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Do You Write About the Inexplicable?

Rational skepticism coexists with a persistent tendency to personify evil and read coincidences as omens.
#infinite-jest
fromThe Art Newspaper - International art news and events
2 months ago

How an artist and a writer forged a frank friendship-and a book

"I have been reading your book The Lonely City: The Art of Being Alone and I wanted to write and say how very good it is," "I discovered Henry Darger's work about 15 years ago. I am so interested in how you write about him and [Edward] Hopper, [Andy] Warhol and [David] Wojnarowicz."
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Reading for the New Year: Part Two

Years ago, I wrote a series of articles for my college newspaper about competing in contests for which I was comically unprepared: arm wrestling, archery, Scrabble. The compulsion to fail dramatically continued into my freelance writing career, when I finagled my way into the front corral at the Los Angeles Marathon. (I stuck with the élites for all of two hundred meters.) My inclination was Plimptonian.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

The Writer's Magic Trick

A writer is a kind of magician. Their job is to create living, three-dimensional people out of the ordinary stuff of ink and paper. This is no easy task, because readers can't literally hear, touch, or observe a character. Everything that defines a human being in real life-the physical space they occupy, or how they smell, feel, and sound-is stripped away, replaced by description. But authors have one major, mystical advantage: They can show you what's happening inside of someone's brain.
Books
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

A Debut Novel About the Quest for Eternal Youth

The boundary between responsible adult and dependent child has frayed as caregivers flail through midlife while youth confront a crumbling, dishonest world.
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Reading for the New Year: Part Four

We meet him as a Gumby-like figure, asleep on a dirt floor, with only a jug of water and a toy horse. He has no idea how he got there. When he's around seventeen years old, Kaspar meets his captor, rendered in the book as a shadowy, hatch-marked father: "The Man in Black." The man teaches him to write his name; he teaches him to take a few fumbling goose steps outside.
Books
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Perennial Predicament of the Artist with an Office Job

A poet working as a copywriter confronts the tension between art and commerce while facing job loss, consumer absurdity, and stalled adult responsibilities.
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"This Is How It Happens," by Molly Aitken

You are leaving work, your suit still damp from the morning's downpour, the skin on your palms peeling. You are clutching two supermarket bags, tins of cream soup and tuna knocking against one another. The rain is hard and your anorak is cheap. You are on your way to Stockbridge, to your parents' house, which only your father inhabits now that your mother is gone.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

She Shook Up the Literary World, Then Renounced It

Many editors languish in the margins of history, their contributions largely invisible despite how much they shape whom and how we read. But in recent years, amid a wave of books unearthing overlooked figures, biographers have turned their sights to pioneering book and magazine editors-including Malcolm Cowley of Viking, Judith Jones of Knopf, Bennett Cerf of Random House, and Katharine S. White of The New Yorker -anointing them as the unsung architects of the American literary canon.
Books
Books
fromDefector
1 month ago

They Publish Books By "Women And Weirdos" In Their Free Time | Defector

Mandylion Press reissues lost nineteenth-century works by women and eccentric authors with redesigned covers, forewords, visual glossaries, and protective packaging.
Books
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

Ishmael Reed on His Diverse Inspirations

A 1960s artist navigated and bridged Black cultural nationalism and the white counterculture while collaborating with multicultural avant-garde artists.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Reading for the New Year: Part Three

Muriel Spark's The Bachelors showcases dark British comic fiction with dry London dialogue, ingeniously malignant plotting, and mordant social observation.
Books
fromMedium
1 month ago

How to start writing (like it's easy)

A profoundly immersive book can deeply alter readers and provoke self-doubt about one's own creative abilities.
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