Readings

Public representations of black women can be beneficial when the women involved are in control. 

A gay daughter inviting her conservative mother to a porn convention has to be a conversation starter, right?

I lay awake in my old apartment, listening to a squirrel claw his way through the popcorn ceiling, and decided, “You know what? It would be great if I was the one who had to pay to fix this problem.”

Train-hopping across America, forgotten poetry, and rediscovering the lost notebooks of the anthropologist and natural science writer Loren Eiseley.

This year, I watched women on television—and black women in my own life—embrace, document and celebrate their natural hair. 

We're all dying of slow damage, if nothing else, but she's dying of things we're not. 

Contempt for reality television is less a specific response than a herd sentiment. And yet, after so many hours under its spell, I feel like I’ve turned a corner: Gordon Ramsay is a genius.

Originally published under a pseudonym, the novel inspiration behind the latest Cate Blanchett film is the kind of thriller you would expect from the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley. 

Talking with the author of The Other Paris about the attacks in France, how writing about Paris is different than writing about New York, and making peace with "aggressively repellent" buildings.