Literature

The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss

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.
  • Is it ever OK to tar your kid in print?

    The sordid back story of Julia Myerson's new memoir, "The Lost Child," should give every parenting writer pause
  • Eat pray equivocate

    Author Elizabeth Gilbert becomes the latest female literary figure to write about her ambivalence toward marriage
  • SheWrites.com: A salon of one's own

    The founder of a literary networking site for women talks about Facebook feminism and the peril of pink covers
  • I have a feeling there is no name for

    This longing comes over me, exciting but unpleasant: Is it a memory? What is it called?
  • Britain's first female poet laureate

    Once called a "poetess" by her male colleagues, Carol Ann Duffy becomes the first woman to hold the prestigious post.
  • Portrait of the public intellectual as mere mortal

    Susan Sontag's journals mean something different to just about everyone.
  • I get distracted by the Internet when I try to write

    Every time I start to do my assignment, I find myself surfing the Web instead!
  • The slush pile gave me writer's block!

    Everything was fine until I started reading unsolicited manuscripts.
  • "Beowulf" vs. "The Lord of the Rings"

    One is a living universe, the other a 3-D voyage to schlockville. A great essay by Tolkien helps us understand why.
  • I'm addicted to Harry Potter fan fiction!

    Every moment I'm alone, I'm secretly reading the stories, the forums, the recommendations. I can't stop!
  • I dream of Darcy

    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?
  • Nelson Algren's New Orleans

    The 1956 classic "A Walk on the Wild Side" captured the Crescent City as we'll never see it again -- seedy, brutal, alive.
  • Wole Soyinka: Exit, pursued by a bear

    The Nigerian Nobel laureate's weird memoir recalls a life of protest, exile -- and farcical political interventions.
  • The rake of Rouen

    A new biography depicts Madame Bovary's creator as a sexual adventurer who spent his life at war with his bourgeois self.
  • Reading "Lolita" in Alabama

    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.
  • Women's studies

    Chick lit is often dissed for being trashy and dumb. Back off! These novels of fashion and family are recording women's history.
  • The blogger who loathed me

    My cyber-nemesis had been trashing me for months. Then we met, and I had a chance to take a terrible revenge.
  • Fantastic friends

    Bestselling writers Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke talk with Salon about fairies, folk tales and fighting the tyranny of realism.
  • The man who knew too much

    Edmund Wilson had four wives, dozens of affairs, a drinking problem -- and the sharpest critical mind of his generation.
  • "Borges: A Life" by Edwin Williamson

    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?
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