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literature

The Books Briefing: The Techno-Future Is Now

March 19, 2021

image of a computer with an eye on the screen

How an Epic and Violent Family History Fuels Fiction

March 13, 2021

A portrait of Paul Yoon

The Relentless Philip Roth

April 2021 Issue

collage illustration of type and Philip Roth

Literature’s Original Bad Bitch Is Back

March 8, 2021

The Lie at the Heart of the Western

February 28, 2021

Shoshone Bannock Reserve Indian Rodeo

The Books Briefing: The Many Sides of Loneliness

February 26, 2021

Homeroom: How to Teach Your Kid to Love Reading

Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer

February 23, 2021

An illustration of a mother crawling out of a giant book and trying to get her daughter's attention. Her daughter stands aside, arms crossed.

The Books Briefing: The Works That Changed Our Understanding of America

Mary Stachyra Lopez

February 19, 2021

A boy reads a book, with artwork for 'The Experiment' in the background

Extremely Online and Wildly Out of Control

March 2021 Issue

illustration of skeleton in coffin looking at smartphone

The Books Briefing: Overlooked Stories of Black American Life

February 12, 2021

Charlotte Forten

A Priceless Archive of Ordinary Life

Cynthia Greenlee

February 9, 2021

Scrapbooking items

Illuminating the Whole American Idea

Jeffrey Goldberg

March 2021 Issue

photo of Charlotte Forten

‘It Seems That I Know How the Universe Originated’

February 8, 2021

An open book with its pages fanning out

Tom Stoppard’s Double Life

March 2021 Issue

photo of Tom Stoppard smoking

The Books Briefing: Murder, They Wrote

February 5, 2021

A detective looks through a magnifying glass.

My Urge to Fail and Fail Again

February 2, 2021

An illustration of an arrow pointing to a foot tattoo

The Library of Possible Futures

February 1, 2021

Illustration of futuristic laser

The Other Tiger

Jorge Luis Borges

January 31, 2021

An illustration of two tigers facing each other, both roaring

The Atlantic Daily: 9 Poems to Read This Weekend

Caroline Mimbs Nyce

January 22, 2021

Amanda Gorman, a National Youth Poet Laureate, recites her poem "The Hill We Climb" during the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.

The Books Briefing: Presidential Biographies—And Presidential Mythologies

January 22, 2021

A black-and-white photograph of JFK and his biographer Arthur Schlesinger Jr. laughing in Boston winter, surrounded by a crowd of men

What Novelists Can Learn From Playwrights

Amy Weiss-Meyer

January 21, 2021

A portrait of Brontez Purnell with colored triangles

The Books Briefing: Humor, Mined From the Absurd

January 15, 2021

man sitting on steps of building with two dogs

Eric Jerome Dickey Made Black Women Feel Seen

Diane McKinney-Whetstone

January 13, 2021

Eric Jerome Dickey

Discovery

January 9, 2021

A colorful collage with hands and geometric objects

Lauren Oyler on the Drama of Swiping and Scrolling

January 9, 2021

A portrait of Lauren Oyler with colored blocks

The Books Briefing: The Propulsive Power of Desire

January 1, 2021

two people embracing

I Can’t Stand These Words Anymore

December 30, 2020

Words being crossed or scribbled out

The Books Briefing: The Best Books of 2020

The Atlantic Culture Desk

December 25, 2020

The 15 Best Books of 2020

The Atlantic Culture Desk

December 24, 2020

A GIF of opening books

The Books Briefing: The Novel Life of Jesus Christ

Mary Stachyra Lopez

December 18, 2020

Photo of a bible on a bed

John le Carré Knew England’s Secrets

December 14, 2020

John le Carré is pictured sitting at an armchair with a notepad on his lap in March 1965.

The Books Briefing: What Stories About Immigration Reveal About America

December 11, 2020

Queens, New York in 2005

The Bigger the Publishers, the Blander the Books

December 9, 2020

An illustration of a stack of books towering over a column.

The Legacy of a Comic Master

January/February 2021 Issue

illustration of Martin Amis smoking with cloud of Martin Amis

The Books Briefing: Reimagining Womanhood

December 4, 2020

Audre Lorde in front of a blackboard that reads: "Women are powerful and dangerous."

The Books Briefing: How to Tell the Story of a Family

November 27, 2020

photograph of a family