Why do we often care more about imaginary characters than real people? A new book suggests that fiction is crucial to our survival as a species.
By Laura Miller May 18, 2009
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Meet Herta Mueller, the best German writer you've never heard of ... until now
By Amy Benfer
October 8, 2009
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She wants me to comment -- but what can I say without ending our friendship?
By Cary Tennis
August 26, 2009
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Books had always helped me in a crisis. But could I find one that explained to my kids why their father was in Iraq?
By Alison Buckholtz
April 11, 2008
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Poet Billy Collins reflects on teaching, reading and writing poetry.
January 28, 2008
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The sordid back story of Julia Myerson's new memoir, "The Lost Child," should give every parenting writer pause
By Amy Benfer
September 2, 2009
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Author Elizabeth Gilbert becomes the latest female literary figure to write about her ambivalence toward marriage
By Amanda Fortini
August 21, 2009
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The founder of a literary networking site for women talks about Facebook feminism and the peril of pink covers
By Frieda Klotz
July 30, 2009
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This longing comes over me, exciting but unpleasant: Is it a memory? What is it called?
By Cary Tennis
July 20, 2009
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Once called a "poetess" by her male colleagues, Carol Ann Duffy becomes the first woman to hold the prestigious post.
By Abigail Kramer
May 1, 2009
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Susan Sontag's journals mean something different to just about everyone.
By Amy Benfer
December 18, 2008
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Every time I start to do my assignment, I find myself surfing the Web instead!
By Cary Tennis
September 30, 2008
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Everything was fine until I started reading unsolicited manuscripts.
By Cary Tennis
August 20, 2008
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One is a living universe, the other a 3-D voyage to schlockville. A great essay by Tolkien helps us understand why.
By Gary Kamiya
November 20, 2007
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Every moment I'm alone, I'm secretly reading the stories, the forums, the recommendations. I can't stop!
By Cary Tennis
November 2, 2007
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A new wave of Austen-mania revolves around ballgowns, romance and Colin Firth's sexy breeches. But what would Jane herself say about this fantasy of the perfect man?
By Rebecca Traister
June 27, 2007
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The 1956 classic "A Walk on the Wild Side" captured the Crescent City as we'll never see it again -- seedy, brutal, alive.
By Allen Barra
September 7, 2006
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The Nigerian Nobel laureate's weird memoir recalls a life of protest, exile -- and farcical political interventions.
By Matt Steinglass
April 20, 2006
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A new biography depicts Madame Bovary's creator as a sexual adventurer who spent his life at war with his bourgeois self.
By Stephen Amidon
April 15, 2006
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Fifty years after its publication, and 20 after my first reading, Nabokov's masterpiece is still dangerous -- but not for the reasons you might think.
By Allen Barra
December 22, 2005
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Chick lit is often dissed for being trashy and dumb. Back off! These novels of fashion and family are recording women's history.
By Rebecca Traister
November 1, 2005
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My cyber-nemesis had been trashing me for months. Then we met, and I had a chance to take a terrible revenge.
By Steve Almond
October 13, 2005
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Bestselling writers Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke talk with Salon about fairies, folk tales and fighting the tyranny of realism.
By Laura Miller
October 8, 2005
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Edmund Wilson had four wives, dozens of affairs, a drinking problem -- and the sharpest critical mind of his generation.
By Allen Barra
October 4, 2005
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Jorge Luis Borges went from being an unknown middle-aged librarian to one of the 20th century's most influential writers. So why do so few people read him now?
By Allen Barra
August 27, 2004
The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss
The Nobel Prize for literature went to who?
My friend wrote a horrible novel
Once upon a time, Dad went to war
Big Think: "The theme of poetry is death"
"Beowulf" vs. "The Lord of the Rings"
I dream of Darcy
Nelson Algren's New Orleans
Wole Soyinka: Exit, pursued by a bear
The rake of Rouen
Reading "Lolita" in Alabama
Women's studies
The blogger who loathed me
Fantastic friends
The man who knew too much
"Borges: A Life" by Edwin Williamson
War Room
How the World Works