literature - The Atlantic

literature

The New David Copperfield Movie Might Be Better Than the Book

September 2020 Issue

illustration of Charles Dickens and Dev Patel

Venus of Willendorf

Yusef Komunyakaa

August 9, 2020

Female figurines

What to Do About William Faulkner

Drew Gilpin Faust

September 2020 Issue

William Faulkner and his wife Estelle in 1955

Elena Ferrante’s Master Class on Deceit

September 2020 Issue

The Atlantic Daily: 9 Poems for This Fraught Moment

Caroline Mimbs Nyce

August 7, 2020

The Books Briefing: The Writers Who Don’t Work Alone

August 7, 2020

The Friendship Files

The Empty Nesters Who Run a Bookstore—And Live Together

August 7, 2020

Two women stand on top of a huge bookshelf, helping each other turn the page of a large book

The Best American Novelist Whose Name You May Not Know

September 2020 Issue

illustration of Gayl Jones

How Poetry Can Guide Us Through Trauma

August 1, 2020

The Books Briefing: And the Winner Is

July 31, 2020

The covers of "Such a Fun Age," "Milkman," and "The Testaments"

Go Memorize a Poem

July 29, 2020

Clint Smith Joining The Atlantic as a Staff Writer

July 27, 2020

Winter’s Tale

July 26, 2020

The Books Briefing: What Is a Political Memoir For?

July 24, 2020

Michelle Obama speaking.

The Atlantic Daily: The Limits of Anti-racism Books

Caroline Mimbs Nyce

July 22, 2020

The Literature of the Pandemic Is Already Here

July 22, 2020

The Books Briefing: What to Read If You’re Looking for Something to Read

Shan Wang, Kate Cray, Rosa Inocencio Smith, and Myles Poydras

July 17, 2020

Piles of French Novels, by Vincent van Gogh

Marisa Silver on the Tangled Nature of Memory

Thomas Gebremedhin

July 16, 2020

The Cowardice of Open Letters

July 15, 2020

An illustration of an open letter with a knife through it.

Love Sonnets

July 12, 2020

An illustration of two faces close together, the space between them forming the shape of a vase, with colorful flowers splaying out

The Books Briefing: How to Read a Classic Today

July 10, 2020

Ottessa Moshfegh’s Riveting Meta-Mysteries

Stephanie Hayes

July 7, 2020

The Books Briefing: The Power of Friendship

July 3, 2020

The Atlantic Daily: 11 Books We’re Reading This Summer

Caroline Mimbs Nyce

July 2, 2020

Two boys wearing newspaper boat hats and reading the newspaper in a wooden tub.

Frederick Douglass

June 28, 2020

An illustrated hand catching a butterfly

The Books Briefing: How to Tell a Story About Florida

June 26, 2020

Photograph of an alligator skull

The Encounter That Revealed a Different Side of Emily Dickinson

June 23, 2020

How Far Does the Apple Fall From the Tree?

June 21, 2020

Seamus Heaney’s Journey Into Darkness

July/August 2020 Issue

photo illustration of Seamus Heaney

The Books Briefing: The Possibilities and Limits of Freedom

June 18, 2020

A woman holds a child.

Despise Bolton, but Read His Book Anyway

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes

June 16, 2020

An illustration of a book with John Bolton's face on the cover.

The Books Briefing: Readjusting Our Understanding of History

June 12, 2020

Andrew Martin on the Coming-of-Age Story

Thomas Gebremedhin

June 12, 2020

I Actually Read Woody Allen’s Memoir

Caitlin Flanagan

June 7, 2020

The Books Briefing: A Struggle to Breathe

June 5, 2020

Variation on the Word Sleep

Margaret Atwood

May 31, 2020