Book Excerpts

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Illustration with black-and-white photo from behind of Nick Thompson running down a road, with the middle lane lines stretching out into the distance on a red and green background. — Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Ike Edeani.

Why I Run

I took up the sport to be like my father. I kept going because he stopped.

Nicholas Thompson

October 23, 2025

Sunlight glitters on rippling water — Nicolò Rinaldi / Connected Archives

Mouth of the River, Tongue of No Country

A poem

Darrel Alejandro Holnes

October 19, 2025

A man walks behind a child who is running across a white landscape with faint black lines in various gridded shapes — Clement Guillaume / Bridgeman Images

From The World After Rain, Part I

A poem

October 12, 2025

detail from black-and-white illustration of soldiers in colonial dress, with swords, on horseback in haze of battle — Illustration by Matt Huynh

The Insurrection Problem

Violence has marred the American constitutional order since the founding. Is it inevitable?

October 9, 2025

a black and white photograph of a teen boy on a bike near a water tower — Photograph by Josh Meltzer

What Happened to Ohio?

The fraying of my family and our working-class hometown

October 7, 2025

The word ambigram written in red — Illustration by Douglas Hofstadter

My Life in Ambigrammia

The esoteric art form that revealed a new kind of beauty to me

Douglas Hofstadter

October 3, 2025

Illustration of a burning candle with a human eye behind it’s flame — Illustration by Rachel Levit

The Judaism I Thought I Knew

“I’m just a cultural Jew,” I would tell people, knowing nothing about Jewish culture.

September 30, 2025

An abstract painting of a Black woman wearing a green dress, holding a Black child wearing a yellow dress with orange stripes, against a light blue background — Painting by Bahati Simoens

In the Beginning, There Was the Word

A poem

Ashley M. Jones

September 14, 2025

Illustration of red hardbound book with DICTIONARY written in gold letters missing large square chunks as if digitally decaying — Illustration by Matt Chase

Is This the End of the Dictionary?

Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful

September 13, 2025

photo-illustration of the U.S. Constitution with a bouquet of flowers tied with ribbon on top of it — Illustration by Tyler Comrie. Source: Nora Carol Photography / Getty

How Originalism Killed the Constitution

A radical legal philosophy has undermined the process of constitutional evolution.

September 10, 2025