From the Archive
The Art of Editing No. 3
By Maxine Groffsky
On Listening to the Silence
By John HaskellAbout a month ago, at the Museum of Modern Art, I attended a performance of John Cage’s 4’33”. I’d read about its famous silence, but because I’d never sat in a theater and experienced that silence, all I had were expectations. I expected the p…
The Daily
On Music
The Retreat
By Joy WilliamsEvery morning when she woke up, she saw the flame and felt the fire—curling around her lashes, creeping up her thighs, blossoming flowers of pink upon her flesh. Clutching stiff lace against her dangling breasts, pressing her heels into the bedpost, she would scream, her singed cheek wrinkling into itself.
From the Archive, Issue 44
Fiction
Type Writing: An Interview with Jim Shepard
By Lesley M.M. BlumeJim Shepard is always funny in conversation, but never more so than when he’s imparting dark musings about the future of the country or about human nature in general. And he can often be found musing about these dark things, for he is, as he puts…
The Daily
At Work
Wrinkles
By Erica JongMy friends are tired. / The ones who are married are tired / of being married. / The ones who are single are tired / of being single.
From the Archive, Issue 59
Poetry
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Six Young Women with Prize-Winning Book Collections
By Nadja SpiegelmanImagine a book collector, a person who has devoted their life to seeking out rare tomes in dusty shops, who arranges their finds, these prized possessions, purposefully and carefully, on a shelf just out of reach. Chances are you will have imagine…
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Bulletin
This Once
By John Ashbery. . . or somebody’s going to get hurt. / For my sake, however, keep pealing to a minimum. / We’ll need the firewood you can pick up on the shore / of that lake.
From the Archive, Issue 216
Poetry
Some Notes on Madame Bovary
By Lydia DavisNot long ago, I was chatting with an older friend who is a retired engineer and also something of a writer, but not of fiction. When he heard that I had just finished a translation of Madame Bovary, he said something like, “But Madame Bovary has already been translated. Why does there need to be another translation?”
From the Archive, Issue 198
Letters & Essays
Life Death and Other Dreams
By James SchuylerThey lived like Shakers, with a slight difference: they didn’t leave anything out, and they didn’t let anyone in.
