Readings

Living in the Shadow of the Halifax Explosion

My neighbourhood doesn't look like a place where, a century ago, hundreds of people were incinerated, and that's exactly the point.

Chasing Ghost Signs

Searching for fading words in London, New York, Melbourne and San Francisco.

The Year in Tension

Day-to-day, I, a queer Native person leaping around this deeply stolen and homophobic land, try to lessen the ambient tensions floating in my air. Now I had to do the opposite.

Remembering in Russian

Extraordinary as it may seem, Stalin’s 21st-century comeback is so ordinary it’s almost on time—and it reveals the complicated legacy of Russia’s relationship with history, authority, and the USSR.

A Brief History of Supermarkets

"The supermarket is very crowded."

'Being Alone is Fundamental and Central to Being Human': An Interview with Ayobami Adebayo

The author of Stay With Me on how stories find you, remembering both sides of a proverb, and discovering your characters. 

The First Time I Went to a Psychic

It’s a far sexier prospect to meet with a clairvoyant for fifty minutes than to sift through a year’s worth of all your broken-hearted mind-junk in therapy.

To Give a Name To It

A collection of baby names is like a taxonomy of hope, a kind of catechism for future lives scattered over the horizon.

'Torture Exists Because Of a Failure of Empathy': An Interview with Kevin Patterson

The author of News from the Red Desert on the desire for action, the futility of violence and capturing the truth of conflict through fiction. 

Nice and Cold

Jonathan Glazer's lush, romantic take on the gangster movie, Sexy Beast, uses the simplest of moments to build its sense of dread: a warm day, a clear pool, a frosty beer.