From an undated entry in The Diaries of Franz Kafka, which was published by Schocken Books in January. Translated from the German. 1. When I think about it, I must…
From “Should Writers Talk?,” a discussion that was held in January at the University of Chicago. agnes callard: One of the reasons you give for why writers shouldn’t talk is…
From “The Agoraphobic Fantasy of Tradlife,” which was published in the Winter 2023 issue of Dissent. Love is the ultimate value, and love is under threat: That is the rumor…
From “Till One or the Other Gits Back,” which is collected in The Caterpillar Dogs and Other Early Stories, out this month from New Directions. She stood now at the…
From the abstract of “Small Penises and Fast Cars,” a study conducted by researchers at University College London. In this experiment, we manipulated what men believed about their own penis…
From similes used by the critic Dwight Garner in book reviews for the New York Times since 2017. Like frogs run over by a lawn mower Like a goose dementedly…
From assertions made by current members of Congress. Claimed to not drink alcohol, before being arrested for drunk driving Claimed to be a consultant for Dow Jones & Company because…
From a bill proposed in the Massachusetts legislature in January. The Commissioner of the Department of Correction shall establish a bone marrow and organ donation program and a bone marrow…
From descriptions of Sam Bankman-Fried included in an article written by Adam Fisher and published by Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm that invested $150 million in Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency platform…
From a new edition of Divine Days, which was published last month in the inaugural volume from Seminary Co-op Offsets, an imprint of Northwestern University Press. That evening, several gifts…
From Our Red Book, a collection of essays and interviews about menstruation, edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff. The book was published in November by Simon & Schuster. rachel kauder nalebuff:…
From Fashion: A Manifesto, which will be published next month by Notting Hill Editions. Enough has been said about the many ways in which fashion harms the environment, not to…
From a November discussion on the Eyes Left podcast, between Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran, and Mansoor Adayfi, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay. mansoor adayfi: As you know,…
From excerpts of a lecture collected in The Poetics of Wrongness, which was published last month by Wave Books. In late January 2013, I told my mother I was going…
From descriptions of popular Twitter conversations in 2022, as summarized by the company. The topics were archived by whatshappening.online. People think actor Mickey Rourke bears a resemblance to Val Kilmer…
From an email sent by a manager of an Olive Garden in Overland Park, Kansas. Attention ALL Team Members: Our call-offs are occurring at a staggering rate. From now on,…
From a disciplinary report produced by the Denver Fire Department in October. Engine 19 of the Denver Fire Department responded to support Denver Police Department officers on a welfare check.…
From Grotesque Weather and Good People, which was published in June by Black Ocean. Translated from the Korean. Thinking of people makes us avoid them. I think we should even…
From “Scientomancy, or Divination by Science,” which was published in the Fall 2022/Winter 2023 issue of Salmagundi Magazine. Translated from the Polish. I would like to focus on a special…
From “On Waitressing,” which was published in September by The Stinging Fly. Before I was eighteen, I found talking very difficult. I was a really shy kid. I lacked ease,…
From The Birthday Party, which was published last month by Transit Books. Translated from the French. Tonight, like almost every night, he hears steps on the stairs as he nods…
From The Wounded Age and Eastern Tales, which was published in January by New York Review Books. Translated from the Turkish. On this mountain where God left you all alone,…
From a 1992 letter written by John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell) to Philip Roth, sent after le Carré read a draft of Roth’s Operation Shylock. The letter is…
From the fifth edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage, which was published in November by Oxford University Press. profanity. For the definitive works, see John McWhorter, Nine Nasty Words (2021);…
From “The Men behind the Girl behind the Man behind the Gun,” which appeared in the May 2022 edition of the Journal of the History of Sexuality. In his 1919…
From reasons people have given for calling in bomb threats across the United States since 2016. Because a pizzeria in Philadelphia wouldn’t feed the Astros during the World Series Because…
From The Last Pomegranate Tree, which was published this month by Archipelago Books. Translated from the Kurdish. One evening, Muhammad the Glass-Hearted sets off for a meeting with an antique…
From The Half Known Life, which will be published this month by Riverhead Books. Four hours in Iran, and already I was having to rethink almost everything. The local guide…