In conversation with Merv Emre on The Critic and Her Publics Welcome to season four of The Critic and Her Publics: The Art of the Interview. This season, host Merv Emre talks to professional interviewers of all types about how they get the answer they’re looking for, what makes a good question, how do you
In conversation with Michael Kelleher for the Windham-Campbell Awards Podcast The Windham-Campbell Awards Podcast features a series of conversations with past and present Windham-Campbell Award The winners about their favorite books and plays. Hosted by Michael Kelleher. Article continues after ad Mike Kelleher talks with Joyelle McSweeney, recipient of the 2026 Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry,
When I first experienced the magic of writing I was reading a novel by Jules Verne. The heroes had just dropped their balloon in the desert. The heat was continuous. Their food had finished several days ago and in the morning even the last drops of water had been swallowed. My mouth was dry. Suddenly,
odyssey is released in theaters tomorrow, and reviews of Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation are almost as rosy as Homer’s beloved morning fingers. Take a look at the reviews here: Truly a grand, daring vision, “The Odyssey” thrills generously throughout its nearly three-hour runtime: It seems that every few minutes, it treats its audience to another
In some ways, I’ve been going to the moon most of my life. As a child of the space age, whose father worked in the space industry, I have followed activities in space, sometimes closely, sometimes less. Satellites, the space race, people on the moon, and all the science-fiction and commercial kitsch that came with
AVNI Doshi’s second novel is narrated by an unnamed woman in suburban America who is shocked to hear her husband announce that he is leaving her. She does not truly love him, but she sees their marriage as a structure or “container” for her own existence. A former novelist, his writing has stopped since the
A gold-colored object engraved with the word “President” rests on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office of the White House on November 10, 2025. Jacqueline Martin/AP hide caption toggle caption Jacqueline Martin/AP the new York Times Journalist Jonathan Swan has spent the past 11 years covering President Trump through three political campaigns, his first
wHein Craig Venter, one of the mappers of the human genome, set out on a sailboat cruise to map DNA in seawater around the world, finding that a teaspoon of seawater contained an average of 50 million viruses. Although this doesn’t sound particularly reassuring, the bad news is mitigated by the fact that most of
If someone asked you to name the world’s most common plot, you’d probably come up with something like this: A hero heeds a call to adventure – perhaps slaying a dragon or protecting their homeland – then they cross an unknown frontier, where they face trials, triumph over a great challenge, and come home with
There are currently three bills in Congress that would allow widespread book censorship across the country. All three originated from the House of Representatives. They are as follows: HR 7661, also known as the “Preventing Sexual Exploitation of Children Act”. It would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, thereby banning the use