In Which Karl Ove Knausgaard Hangs Out in His Car, Talking
Paul Holdengraber catches up with Karl Ove Knausgaard while the author of My Struggle (book five out now) drives his young daughter home. One assumes he is using a handsfree phone as the conversation...
View ArticleMitchell S. Jackson’s The Residue Years, Part Three
In the conclusion of Mitchell S. Jackson’s autobiographical documentary, The Residue Years, Jackson heads to New York, novel in hand, and begins to realize a future born from the hard-luck past… To...
View ArticleEdward Snowden on Why We Must Protect our Privacy
In November 2015, PEN America released a report that examines the scant protections for whistleblowers working in United States intelligence organizations. To mark its publication, we hosted a forum at...
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Voices from the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
Next week kicks off the start of 12th annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. One of the world’s largest literary festivals with more than 150 writers from 30 countries in...
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How to Draw a Dragon
The Tale of Shikanoko is a four-volume epic set in the mythic, medieval Japan of Lian Hearn’s imagination. The first volume, Emperor of the Eight Islands, comes out in the United States on April 26th;...
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Prince, 1958-2016
Prince died yesterday, too young, at the of 57. Cultural icon, sex symbol, musical prodigy—he was all of these things. But perhaps his defining legacy will be his genius for individuality, and his...
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Shakespeare and His Stuff
A Letter to Shakespeare This is the only known surviving letter written to Shakespeare. It was discovered in 1793 amongst the many papers of the Stratford-upon-Avon Corporation archives. On the...
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Shakespeare is Dead: Six Hot Takes
It’s hard to believe it’s been 400 years since Shakespeare died. It feels like only yesterday Polonius saw us off to college, or Kate and Petruchio taught us how to love, or Titus Andronicus scared the...
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George Plimpton, the Original Master of None
No one did it quite like George Plimpton. It’s hard to imagine a writer ever again embedding as deeply as he did in the world of professional sports, going far beyond locker room banter and right onto...
View ArticleAndrew Solomon on Violence, Isolationism, and the Art of Travel
In part one of their conversation, Paul Holdengraber and Andrew Solomon discuss American isolationism in the context of global unrest, the need to engage with the international community, and the...
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16 Books You Should Read This May
I Let You Go, Clare Mackintosh (Berkley) Wilde Lake, Laura Lippman (William Morrow) The thriller of May is definitely I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh, which was a smash hit in the UK. Be warned: it...
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Remembering Jenny Diski
Jenny Diski—novelist, essayist, and occasional blogger—died yesterday at the age of 68, from the cancer she had been documenting for the London Review of Books since 2014. We asked eight writers to...
View ArticleWalter Mosley’s Lifetime Acceptance Speech from the Edgars
I can remember, back when I was a child, crying or complaining about some bright color or sweet taste that I was being kept from. I was no longer an infant or toddler. I had language and should have...
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Interview with a Library: The London Library
The London Library was set up in a fit of pique 175 years ago. Thomas Carlyle had become intensely dissatisfied with the studying facilities available to Londoners (there were no lending libraries) and...
View ArticleAndrew Solomon on Global Terrorism, Travel Writing, and Empathy
In the second part of their conversation, Andrew Solomon and Paul Holdengraber discuss civilization’s battle with fundamentalism(s), free speech, old travel writing, and the role of literature in...
View ArticleTemporary People
This excerpt was originally published in Guernica. Gulf Return In a labor camp, somewhere in the Persian Gulf, a laborer swallowed his passport and turned into a passport. His roommate swallowed a...
View ArticleAnnouncing the Winner of Restless Books New Immigrant Writing Prize
Restless Books is pleased to announce the inaugural winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, which each year will award $10,000 and publication to a first-time, first-generation...
View ArticleSalman Rushdie on Letter Writing, Fairy Tales, and Drinking with Gunter Grass
In part one of their conversation, Salman Rushdie and Paul Holdengraber discuss the dismal science, bad times at boarding school, and the enduring lessons of Orpheus and Eurydice. Salman Rushdie on how...
View ArticleLouise Erdrich: 5 Books In My Life
Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, LaRose, is available now from Harper. What was the first book you fell in love with? I fell in love with Mad Magazine. Growing up in a small town it seemed exciting,...
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New Arabic Fiction: 5 Contemporary Short Stories
Issue 11 of The Common Mag is dedicated to new fiction from across the Arab world. The following stories are among the 24 featured in the issue. There will be a celebration of the issue, and the...
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