We’ve collected quotes from some of our favorite writers, readers, and thinkers on the pleasure—and necessity—of books.
POEM OF THE WEEK
On Homesickness
By Sarah Ruhl
What is your malady?
Asks the form at the community acupuncture clinic. My pen hovers—so many to choose from: the thyroid, the gut, the face.
ENTER TODAY
Narrative winners and finalists have gone on to win honors including the Pulitzer Prize, and have appeared in collections such as The Best American Short Stories.
See the guidelines.
FICTION
Wise as Serpents
By Upton Sinclair
“I am not proposing that you should do detective work,” explained the President. “That is the business of our Intelligence.”
Winter Issue
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
Winter Issue
FICTION
A Small Blip on an Eternal Timeline
By Ifeoma Sesiana Amobi
My family came to America when I was one, and in my tiny luggage bag my mother stuffed dreams too large for me to carry.
FICTION
The Rage of the Squat King
By Rick Bass
What would make a sane, much less an educated, person want to watch such blood sport?
FICTION
The End of Life
By Yoon Choi
He thinks with joy and conviction that the Japanese are his enemy. It is a wonderful thing to have an enemy.
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
You Can’t Keep Going Like This
By Shane Delaney
I appreciate the Plunge is special to you, sir, the guard said. But it’s special to everyone else too.
FICTION
Naming
By Yelena Furman
I sensed that a name defined who I was and would be in the future. Renaming myself was a little like being reborn.
FICTION
Butterfly
By Vivian Ludford
“Do I look pretty?” Wenci would ask. “Do I look like I live here?” She could have lived anywhere and made it hers.
FICTION
iSTORIES
FICTION
End of Story
By Marian Thurm
During those months when she was hooking up with her affair partner, she was still helping get my mother into her nightgown.
iSTORIES
Donahue’s
By Andrea Marcusa
Everyone said the woman at the end of the bar was once an Argentinean prima ballerina with royal blood.
CLASSICS
POETRY
POETRY
CLASSICS
The Joy of Writing and Other Poems
By Wisława Szymborska
I’m working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools, blues for brooders.
POETRY
Miracle of Lights / Ode to My Imperfect Love
By Sara Brickman
Olive oil and paprika slant, just a little bent to the eye that’s looking.
POETRY
Snapshot of My Natural Father and Other Poems
By Edward Hirsch
A short flight from Phoenix, he could go to Vegas on a hunch.
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
Suitors Know Best and Other Poems
By Vandana Khanna
Every night, the moon is a smooth omen staving off the inevitable—all the Suitors breathing behind the door, warping the wood with their want.
POETRY
from “The Last Bohemian of Avenue A”
By Yusef Komunyakaa
Sweet talk an antihero with wet kisses on his eyelids, saying, Come over here & lie down.
POETRY
The Night I Watched My Twelve-Year-Old Brother Get Cuffed & Taken from Our Home, Tearing Up, Saying: “I Didn’t Do It!”
By Anacaona Rocio Milagro
i was ten, his right hand.
iPOEMS
READERS’ NARRATIVES
READERS' NARRATIVES
iPOEMS
Feathered Cup
By Shangyang Fang
Read this beautiful, dreamlike poem—a complete universe on a single screen.
READERS’ NARRATIVES
Washington, DC
By Jonathan Fink
My wife calls to say my daughter’s eye is out, initially suspected lost on the National Mall.
READERS' NARRATIVES
Manila, Philippines
By Rowena Leong Singer
I often observed my grandmother as she cracked shells, pinched off heads, twisted necks, and pulled off feathers.
SIX-WORD STORIES
CARTOONS
CARTOONS
SIX-WORD STORIES
First Lady
By Jane Seskin
A literal interpretation of the First Lady’s initiative, imagined in just six words.
CARTOONS
Cartoon Art Volume 2020-01
By Various Artists
Unreal and all too real toons by Seth Fleishman, Charlie Hankin, Mary Lawton, Drew Panckeri, and David Rowles.
CARTOONS
Cartoon Art Volume 2019-12
By Various Artists
New art and humor by Seth Fleishman, David Rowles, Mick Stevens, Julia Suits, and P. C. Vey.
