Essays

Essays

The Critic as Friend

The challenge of reading generously
Merve Emre
The Moment

A Reviewer’s Life

The material constraints of writing criticism today
Christine Smallwood
The Moment

Palestinian Solidarity, Then and Now

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

Paul Auster

Why the novelist’s brand of postmodern detective fiction still matters
Ben Libman
Essays

Critical Navel-Gazing

If criticism is in crisis, it’s not the critic’s problem
Namwali Serpell
Essays

I, Too, Am John Clare

Becoming a different kind of postcolonial writer
Amit Chaudhuri

Browse

Essays

Fine art of a woman bathing
Essays

A Common Seagull

On making art and mourning
Sheila Heti
January 1, 2020
Abstract automaton
Essays

Broken Doll

A daughter’s suicide in another country
Carlos Manuel Álvarez
and
Rahul Bery
January 1, 2020
Author photo
Essays

Changing My Mind

On sources, revision, and order
Lydia Davis
January 1, 2020
A photo of the author's mother and brother in 1974
Essays

Ghosts in My Nursery

Mourning the brother I never knew
Miranda Featherstone
January 1, 2020
A blurred photo of lights
Essays

In Centennial

The only ones left alive
Cathy Park Hong
January 1, 2020
An old photo of baseball players
Essays

Loss

When yearning is a pleasure
Sarah Manguso
January 1, 2020
Portrait of the author's mother
Essays

Stereopticon

Twelve ways of looking at my mother
Emily Bernard
January 1, 2020
Portrait of J. D. McClatchy
Essays

Still to Love

For J. D. McClatchy
Langdon Hammer
January 1, 2020
Obscured female form with words
Essays

The Skin You’re In

On living in—and losing—a body
Molly McCully Brown
January 1, 2020
A stack of old issues of The Yale Review. Courtesy Pentagram
Essays

Listening to the Provinces

A painter’s letters home
Shifra Sharlin
July 1, 2019