
How Literature Inspires Empathy
The Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Al Aswany explains how one word in Dostoyevsky’s novel The House of the Dead showed him how literature can help us understand one another.
Authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature.

The Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Al Aswany explains how one word in Dostoyevsky’s novel The House of the Dead showed him how literature can help us understand one another.

The author Jesse Ball discusses Lewis Carroll's ‘Jabberwocky’ and how precise prose doesn’t always make for powerful work.

The author Mary-Beth Hughes discusses how Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel The Blue Flower showed her that words can dance.

The author Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses how his novel The Sympathizer is the product of decades of enjoying other works.

Joshua Cohen, the author of Book of Numbers, discusses Dostoyevsky’s The Double, in which the author becomes a presence in the novella.

The nonfiction writer Lucas Mann offers advice for essayists worried about whether they have anything interesting to say.

The novelist and editor Anna North discusses the Odyssey’s timeless lesson about leaving the comforts of home.

Mark Z. Danielewski discusses how the interplay of words and images can open up new ways of perceiving both literature and the world.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic discusses the importance of noticing hidden truths—from the horrors of war to the mundane aspects of daily life.

The Norwegian author, known for the multivolume autobiography My Struggle, finds inspiration in the restraint of the tale of Cain and Abel.