Essays

Essays

The Shapes of Grief

Witnessing the unbearable
Christina Sharpe
The Moment

Palestinian Solidarity, Then and Now

The power of encampment as a form of protest
Feisal G. Mohamed
Essays

Louise Glück’s Late Style

The fabular turn in the poet’s last three books
Teju Cole
Essays

Jean Stein’s Rolodex

The legendary editor’s social genius
Benjamin Anastas
Essays

The Path to Playwright

Discovering my literary hero in an unlikely place
Sonya Kelly
Essays

The Frictions of Interracial Love

How one fundamental difference can color every aspect of marriage
Anne Anlin Cheng

Browse

Essays

The author with her sister in childhood.
Essays

There I Almost Am

On envy and twinship
Jean Garnett
May 19, 2021
people walking in front of a building, black and whtie photo
Essays

We Have a Body

The deaths of patients—and colleagues
Suzanne Koven
May 19, 2021
Adam Zagajewski. Courtesy Donostia Kultura
Essays

Remembering Adam Zagajewski

A poet of the human soul
Ilya Kaminsky
May 6, 2021
A woman at the beach with a watermelon
Essays

The Wild, Sublime Body

Learning how to be human
Melissa Febos
March 10, 2021
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