What a sensible idea of Ashbery’s, I thought, and modest—to direct attention away from himself. It also worked to his own benefit; he was more interested in exploring these other poets and ...

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees settled in Toronto in the Eighties, and word spread among them that worm picking was a sure way to make money, albeit a punishing one. Pickers ruin their knees ...

T he only thing everyone can agree on about why Donald Trump does what he does is that his reasons are not obvious. There are innumerable proposals on offer for an intellectual framework that ...

I went to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2005 because I’d won a writing prize, and with that prize came an invitation to a luncheon and awards ceremony. Each honoree was allowed to bring ...

From “Manufacturing Depression,” which appeared in the May 2007 issue of Harper’s Magazine. The complete article—along with the magazine’s entire 175-year ...

From a set of trading cards produced in the Japanese town of Kawara featuring the community’s middle-aged and elderly men, known as ojisan. The power of an ojisan ’s card in the game is determined by ...

From Time Tunnel, which will be published next month by New York Review Books. Composed in 1958, this essay was discovered in a University of Maryland archive in 2020. S now-covered New England ...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven’t given y’all a history lesson in a while, and I want to give you a little history on homelessness. In 1910, Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while. So for ...

Unloaded Magazines From a list of 891 periodicals removed in July from the U.S. Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s on-base stores. Magazine sales at military exchanges declined by 18.3 percent ...

From Campfires of the Dead and the Living, a short story collection, which will be published next month by 11:11 Press. “Is this your good shirt with the frayed collar ...

From the Archive Timeless stories from our 175-year archive handpicked to speak to the news of the day.

From Vaim, which will be published in October by Transit Books. Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls. S o, I said, well here we are, I said, and I ran my fingers through my beard, my graying ...