Readings

post card
Dark Matter

For twenty years, PostSecret has broadcast suburban America’s hidden truths—and revealed the limits of limitless disclosure. 

Diptych of author Anthony Oliveira and the book cover for Dayspring
Crush on the Cross: An Interview with Anthony Oliveira

The author of Dayspring discusses queerness, Christianity, and the anxious sense that history is over.

A graphic of two anthropomorphic books, one bright pink and one pale cream, with a background of a city skyline and two piles of books on either sides.
The Two Solitudes of Book Design

From spartan cream to splashy blobs, Canada's French and English literary cultures have their own separate visual languages.

Diptych of author Colin Barrett and the book cover of his novel Wild Houses
In the Kidnapper’s Kitchen: An Interview with Colin Barrett

The author of Wild Houses on peripheral main characters, small town lore, and growing up around people of “miscellaneous occupation.”

Two people sitting on chairs with their backs to each other and to their surroundings, with the smoke stacks of Auschwitz in the background and the smoking rubble of Gaza reflected in the pool in the foreground.
The Making of the Genocidal Mind

The genocidal mind is not the preserve of cartoon monsters in history books. It is a collusion of psychological habits groomed and grown in people like us when we fixate on our private gardens.

A painting of a man kneeling, surrounded by a circle of legs. He wears a white tank top and there is blood on his body.
Writing a Novel With Pictures

Smuggling contraband in from the realm of the actual.

Diptych of author Jennifer Croft and the cover of her novel, The Extinction of Irina Rey
‘The Intimate Process That Takes Place Between’: An Interview with Jennifer Croft

The author of The Extinction of Irina Rey on writing a literary sitcom about life, death and climate change.

Dickie Greenleaf stares out a window but the reflection is Tom Ripley
My Funny Valentine

Back in high school a friend had called me Matt Damon in the drawl of Team America, but the connection to Tom Ripley felt more psychic, fundamental.

A chicken coop depicted in the moonlight
Chicken Tender

I learned to ignore the doubt that lapped at my ankles, a wave that rose every time I kissed him goodbye, left town for work or travel, and remembered, with a shock, how happily whole I felt alone.

An image of Chtanl against a colourful background.
Beige Foods Forever

They are often stewed foods, sometimes steamed or boiled. They are foods defined by their colours first—in this context, the lack of colour, the overall sameness, somehow gets misread as a fault.