Mary McCarthy’s writing is always taking the temperature of the room, feeling the social shifts in attention and power, uncovering pettiness and mistaken victories
Alice McDermott and Kirstin Valdez Quade on the importance of place, how Catholicism has influenced their work, and representations of immigrants in fiction
Layli Long Soldier’s poetry replies to the U.S. government’s apology to Native Americans and Julia Cameron offers concrete tools for fostering creativity
Jeff Guinn’s new biography-cum-history is a study of persuasion and power in Peoples Temple, the twentieth-century socialist cult led by preacher Jim Jones
