Essays

Essays

Lessons of the Line

Charles Simic and me
Dana Levin
Essays

Ucky Art

Judith Scott, Eva Hesse, and the visceral power of "texxture"
Lauren Elkin
Essays

Unfathomable Life

As a philosopher, I thought I understood risk. Then I tried to get pregnant.
Anna Hartford
Essays

Spiritualism’s Shadows

On COVID-19 and false consolation
Alicia Puglionesi
Essays

Heat Maps

Desire in the dark
Alex Marzano-Lesnevich
Objects of Desire

Jars with Well-Fitting Lids

Seeing loss more clearly
Catherine Lacey

Browse

Essays

A version of the California flag with "Twitter" replacing "California" in the banner's text section
Essays

Against Abdicating Power to Big Tech

We can’t rely on Big Tech to reign over online speech
Claire Bond Potter
February 1, 2021
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Pandemic Files

My Summer of Julien Gracq

Reading a French novelist’s examination of liminal space in a plague year
Seth Lerer
January 11, 2021
A swirling pattern on green background
Essays

Notes Upon Arrival

A diary of immigration and lost love
Bhanu Kapil
December 1, 2020
Photo of gears and machinery
Essays

The Anti-Extinction Engine

Langston Hughes and my friend, the apocalypse actuary
Anne Boyer
December 1, 2020
Pillars at National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama
Essays

The Hauntologies of Slavery

On a journey across the sea
Jonah Mixon-Webster
December 1, 2020
black and white photo of low and heavy clouds
Essays

The Heavy Air

Capitalism and affronts to common sense
Anne Boyer
December 1, 2020
The activist Gloria Richardson walking past National Guardsmen during a civil rights march in Cambridge
Essays

Unbothered

The grace of black nonchalance
Namwali Serpell
December 1, 2020
Portrait of Samuel Delany at his desk turning to look over his shoulder
Essays

Why I Write

Getting ready not to be
Samuel R. Delany
December 1, 2020
various sizes of metallic squares with gold borders
Essays

Wildness

Feminism, identity, and the willingness to be defeated
Maria Tumarkin
December 1, 2020
Cracks in ice
Essays

Did I Write a Feel-Good Book?

I survived a terrorist attack. I never expected my story might console others.
Philippe Lançon
and
Steven Rendall
November 23, 2020