literature

The Best Moments From the Smartest Literary Festival in the World

This year's Hay Festival was a historic meeting of the minds — and the events are still available to stream online

Sylvia Plath’s Food Diary Is… the Happiest Place on Twitter?

A Twitter account documenting Sylvia Plath's every mention of food reveals a side of the poet we rarely see

This Podcast About Celebrity Memoirs Prepared Me for The Will Smith Slap

But more importantly, why you should be listening to “Celebrity Memoir Bookclub”

The 10 Best Sex Scenes in Classic Literature

The supposedly stuffy literature of yore is actually a trove of surprisingly steamy sex scenes

Orwell’s “1984” to Get “Feminist Retelling” From Julia’s Perspective

"Julia" will recount the events of Orwell's classic from the perspective of Winston Smith's love interest

The 10 Books You Should Be Reading This November

Including insights into the art world, a painfully funny pandemic novel and a veteran's appraisal of the war in Iraq

Netflix's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' Ushers in a New Era of Horny Literary Adaptations

The forthcoming take on the infamous D.H. Lawrence classic is already rumored to be raunchier than 'Bridgerton'

Meet Branwell Brontë, the Rob Kardashian of Victorian Literature’s Most Famous Family

A relatively unsuccessful brother overshadowed by three powerful sisters? Sounds familiar.

Jonathan Ames Has Gone Noir, And He’s Not Turning Back

With his latest book, "A Man Named Doll," the humorist-turned-crime novelist offers up the best of both worlds

Literary Scammers are the Weirdest Scammers

British literary prizes are being targeted by a scammer or scammers

Nobody Could Burn a Bridge Like Ernest Hemingway

No writer made friends — or enemies — as easily as Papa

Gay Talese’s 40-Year-Old Treatise on Sex in America Is Still Just as Scandalous as Ever

“Thy Neighbor’s Wife” was supposed to help ignite a revolution. We're still waiting for it.

Seven Ways to Pay Tribute to Legendary San Franciscan Lawrence Ferlinghetti

How to fight off the “dot-commies and the whole computer consciousness”

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Nobody Could Burn a Bridge Like Ernest Hemingway

No writer made friends — or enemies — as easily as Papa

Gay Talese’s 40-Year-Old Treatise on Sex in America Is Still Just as Scandalous as Ever

“Thy Neighbor’s Wife” was supposed to help ignite a revolution. We're still waiting for it.

Seven Ways to Pay Tribute to Legendary San Franciscan Lawrence Ferlinghetti

How to fight off the “dot-commies and the whole computer consciousness”

For the Spy Novelist Robert Littell, The Cold War Never Ended

Now 85, Littell has amassed a body of work on the US-Soviet conflict that will never be rivaled

It’s Time for Men to Start Reading More Erotica

Erotic literature offers a more mentally stimulating alternative to porn that just might be more stimulating overall

She Helped Michelle Obama Sell 14 Million Books. Now She Wants to Replicate It.

Book publishing, an industry in flux, is getting a new player in Molly Stern’s Zando

The Bad Sex in Literature Award Is Canceled

The judges decided we've been subjected to enough this year without throwing bad sex into the mix

So, Is the "Great Gatsby" Prequel any Good?

Michael Farris Smith's "Nick" is out this winter

Poet Louise Glück Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Glück is the first female poet to receive the prize since 1996

The Long, Violent History of Calling Someone a "Cuck"

From the Trojan War to Shakespeare, the oft-ridiculed archetype has always had much darker implications

Scholars Say William Shakespeare Was “Undeniably Bisexual”

The latest chapter in literary scholarship's favorite pastime: needlessly speculating on Shakespeare's sexuality

Ben Sonnenberg: The Last of the Great Literary Dandies

The re-release of his memoir puts him in company with Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain and Tom Wolfe

Things Are Not Going Well at the National Book Critics Circle

The organization wanted to say that Black Lives Matter, and apparently not everyone agreed