I'm a columnist for Lit Hub whose work has appeared in New York Mag, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Esquire & The New Republic. My book, I Want To Burn This Place Down, publishes in July 2025.
Forgive me for skipping last week's newsletter! I've been reading submissions for for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, and I didn't want to use this space to write about what I read. That will be under wraps until this spring. I also took
It's Misandry Week at the Maris Review! What I read this week Without Consent: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime by Sarah Weinman Spousal rape is just like any other form of rape (not uncommon, underreported, still very much about victim-blaming,
It's a short one this week because my flight back to NYC was canceled yesterday. After a night in an airport hotel, I'm just relieved to have something to sound out at all. I am furious that I was inconvenienced so thoroughly and that the Dems
It's the last big new release day of 2025 What I read this week I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Hartman, translated by Ros Schwartz Tomorrow night I'll be discussing I Who Have Never Known Men at McNally Jackson Seaport. It's the
What I read this week Heart the Lover by Lily King Lily King does it again. My favorite of her novels is still Euphoria, her fictionalization of the experiences of Margaret Mead that is action-packed and filled with both dread and beauty. But with Writers and Lovers and now Heart
I'm feeling a little under the weather today, a flu-like thing that isn't the flu. And still I was like, you MUST get your newsletter out, even if it's a little shorter than usual. And then I thought, I'll thank all of
What I read this week The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus There are so many things I want to say about this book. But let's start with this: The Four Spent the Day Together is an excellent book about how journalism cannot be objective. I
What I read this week Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa It's been more than a decade since the New York Times ran this piece about the plight of nail salon workers, but I think of it every time I pass a nail salon (very, very often in
What I read this week Beings by Ilana Masad I was just the right age in 1987, when Whitley Streiber's Communion was published, to spend sleepless nights worrying if the space alien depicted on the cover was going to come take me from my bed. As a kid
"'It's like Joyce Carol Oates is trying to start a feud with me,' I say. 'Does everyone have this feeling?'" – Patricia Lockwood What I read this week Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood "... if to write about being
And now for two descents into hell... What I read this week Katabasis by RF Kuang I feel like critic and reader response alike have been all over the place on this one, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I'm delighted to report that
In which I discuss books by a very distant relative and an all-time favorite author. What I read this week A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews Miriam Toews is one of my favorite writers, and All My Puny Sorrows is one of my favorite novels. Like, top